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By Yantoultra Ngui
SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Maynilad Water Services has hired banks including Morgan Stanley and UBS to work on a more than $500 million initial public offering in the Philippines, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.
The IPO is expected to hit the market as early as this year, or in 2026, and would likely value the Philippine water and wastewater services company at more than $3 billion, the sources told Reuters on Wednesday, declining to be named as the matter was private.
"Our legislative franchise requires that we do an IPO no later than January 2027. Accordingly, we are making the necessary preparations to allow us to comply with that listing requirement," Maynilad said in a statement to Reuters on Thursday, adding that it couldn't provide any further information for now.
In December 2021, the Philippine government granted Maynilad a 25-year franchise to establish, operate and maintain a waterworks system and sewerage and sanitation services in the west zone service area of Metro Manila and the province of Cavite, according to its website.
Morgan Stanley and UBS declined to comment.
The planned listing adds to a growing pipeline of IPOs in the Philippines, where IPO proceeds surged sharply to $234.1 million last year, from $72.9 million in 2023, LSEG data showed.
Maynilad is the largest private water concessionaire in the Philippines in terms of customer base, according to its websites.
The Quezon City-based company provides water and wastewater services to the 17 cities and municipalities that comprise the west zone of the metropolitan Manila area, its websites showed.
Maynilad is managed by Maynilad Water Holdings Company, a joint venture between infrastructure conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp, construction-to-nickel mining group DMCI Holdings and Japanese trading company Marubeni Corp, according to its website.
The consortium took control of Maynilad in January 2007.
(Reporting by Yantoultra Ngui; Additional reporting by Karen Lema in Manila; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
