By Aubrey Rose A. Inosante, A reporter
MAHARLIKA Investment Cor. (MIC) is expected to make its first investment this quarter, most likely in the energy sector, upfsaid cial.
“Definitely the first quarter. I think we had a year to stop. We have had a year to put our governance in place. We received our approval to start hiring at the end of July,” MIC President and Chief Executive OffIcer Rafael D. Consing, Jr. he said in an interview with BusinessWorld on Jan. 2.
MIC has not invested since President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. signed the law that creates the country’s first economic fund in July 2023.
The Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) had committed to make its first investment before the end of 2024.
Mr. Consing said the private equity fund is “ready” and has the funding and staff needed, but will not invest “without the benefit of due diligence.”
MIC has received P2.3 billion in interest income by 2024, Mr. Consing said.
Under this law, the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) and the World Bank of the Philippines are authorized to contribute P25 billion and P50 billion, respectively, as initial seed capital for the MIF. The two state lenders sent the funds to the Bureau of the Treasury in September 2023.
Mr. Consing said the MIC strategy will be approved by the board on Jan. 9. This follows that it made some changes after meeting with the Government-Owned and Controlled Companies (GCG) Governance Commission before the holidays, he added.
MIC is looking to invest in energy, food security, health care, and resource development, especially mining.
“In the first quarter that will be the energy sector. Health care, if it seems right, if our due diligence results are right, the first part. I would say at the beginning of the second quarter of the last two,” said Mr. Consing.
Mr. Consing said he believes investment in the energy sector, especially transmission lines, will have a “huge impact.”
“That’s why we would like to buy from the national grid, if we can. Or number two, we also signed MOUs (memorandum of understanding) separately and similar to Mindoro and Palawan, which fall under SPUGS. [small power utilities group] section,” he said.
In 2024, MIC signed an agreement with Occidental and Oriental Mindoro to support investments in critical energy infrastructure.
“There are about 34 SPUGS in the country. The two biggest ones are Mindoro and Palawan. And we believe that given the contribution of Palawan when it comes to tourism, and the number of people living there, and the potential contribution of Mindoro in relation to the entire energy sector in the Philippines, we felt that these are two important areas where we can help, in fact, build transmission lines,” she said.
However, Mr. Consing declined to comment on MIC’s plan to invest in National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP).
He said the National Power Corp. it is currently inventorying all its assets in Mindoro and MIC “will have to sit down and decide what part of those assets it will need as part of the expansion of these lines.”
“Where we are now we are buying the services of a technical consultant and a team that will be putting together all the feasibility studies. Because all this will need to be legally approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission,” he added.
Without the power lines, Mr. Consing said they also intend to build other small stations.
“But the problem is that Mindoro is not connected to the grid. So even if you can build that much capacity, it will be wasted because it cannot be sent to the grid at the end. So, in the end, NGCP will have to connect that,” he said.
Finance Secretary Ralph G. Recto, who is the chairman of the MIC board, had pushed for the sovereign wealth fund to invest and get a seat on the NGCP board.
NGCP, the country’s electricity operator, is 60 percent owned by businessman Henry T. Sy, Jr. and Robert G. Coyiuto, Jr., while State Grid Corp. of China controls 40%.
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