Philippine national power grid IPO can guard against China threat: senator
- The Philippine government is investigating China’s part ownership of the national grid amid claims Beijing can plunge country into darkness
- Energy committee chairman Sherwin Gatchalian says public has already lost out on billions of pesos due to grid’s failure to list on stock exchange
That’s the view of Sherwin Gatchalian, chairperson of the Philippine Senate’s energy committee, who used a televised interview on Wednesday to remind the NGCP that under the franchise granted to the private firm by Congress in January 2009, it was required to sell 20 per cent of its equity in an initial public offering (IPO) within 10 years of operation. “This is really one of the most important features of the franchise,” Gatchalian said.
The State Grid Corporation of China holds a 40 per cent stake in the NGCP. The Philippines” National Transmission Corporation previously ran the system and now has oversight over the NGCP, but its president Melvin Matibag has conceded that in reality its access is “limited”.
Gatchalian said that giving the public an opportunity to take a 20 per cent stake in the company would “improve the governance structure of this operator … the public could participate in its governance as well as look at the books and the operations closely”.
“And I would like to strongly suggest also that government takes a share, a stake in this IPO so that it will be well represented [on the board],” he added.
Gatchalian, a finance and operations management graduate of Boston University in the United States, said the public had already lost out due to the delayed listing.
