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STATE
pension fund Government Service Insurance System (GSIS)
Wednesday confirmed it has raised its stake in Manila
Electric Co. (Meralco) from 8 percent to about 20
percent via the acquisition of some shares held by the
government.
In a
telephone interview, general manager and president
Winston Garcia said the shares were purchased for P9
billion, or at P80 each. The transaction was made last
week.
Meralco
A shares were P80 each at the end of stock-market
trading Wednesday.
“It’s
another strategic investment for us. After we sold the
San Miguel shares, we were really looking for major
company that can be a strategic investment and I think
Meralco is one of the best companies out there,” Garcia
said.
He said
earlier the pension fund is prepared to invest up to P20
billion this year in consumer-related stocks in
high-growth industries that include the power sector.
Apart
from supporting the Philippine market, GSIS said it
would raise from $1 billion to $2.5 billion its global
investments.
“The
Philippine market is too small for the size of the GSIS
funds. We have to address the nagging problem of absence
of diversification and dearth of investment
opportunities which prevent the fund from maintaining
its actuarial solvency,” he said.
GSIS
signed an investment management agreement with Credit
Agricole Asset Management (Singapore) Ltd. and ING
Investment Management for the management of the pension
fund’s global investments.
As of
end-September, GSIS posted net operating revenues of P35
billion from P29.2 billion a year earlier as a result of
higher returns from local investments.
It also
registered 29.7-percent rise in revenues from other
investments to P15.3 billion from P11.8 billion. Parts
of these were attributed to revenues of P153.4 million
from domestic investments managed by local fund
managers.
Last
year, the pension fund commissioned the country’s
biggest lenders, Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co., Bank
of the Philippine Islands and BDO Universal Bank to
manage P6 billion in net investible funds for a period
of three years starting this year.
Meanwhile, gains of P10.4 billion from sales of stocks
were also recorded during the first three quarters of
2007 from P756.3 million in the same period a year
earlier.
Total
assets increased by 5.8 percent to P432.5 billion, from
P408.8 billion in the same comparable period. |
