LISTED conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. fell to its lowest level in more than a month on concerns the Pangilinan-led firm will have to pay more than expected for the remaining Lopez stake in Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).

Lopez-led First Philippine Holdings Corp. confirmed in a disclosure on Tuesday that TriRatna Holdings Corp., a private company controlled by Henry Sy Jr., son of retail tycoon Henry Sy Sr., offered P300 per share for its 13.4-percent Meralco shares which would bring its value to over P44 billion.

In a briefing yesterday, Pangilinan—who owns 34.7 percent of Meralco through Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and Metro Pacific—said he is still studying his options which include matching TriRatna’s offer or exercising its so-called tag-along rights.

TriRatna’s offer of P300 per share is said to be higher than what Pangilinan, through Metro Pacific, offered the Lopez family in a separate deal that involves one-half or 6.7 percent of the latter’s Meralco shares. The Lopezes earlier said talks may be concluded by this month before Sy’s surprise offer on Friday.

Meanwhile, shares of Metro Pacific lost 5.88 percent yesterday ending at P3.20 apiece.

If Pangilinan’s group exercises this tag-along right, TriRatna will also have to buy shares controlled by the PLDT chairman on top of the Lopez stake.

In an interview, CitisecOnline assistant president and research head April Lee-Tan said it is unlikely that Pangilinan’s group will sell its Meralco shares, hence the investor sentiment that Metro Pacific will pay more to protect its interest in the power retailer.

“Pangilinan said the reason they were buying [Meralco] shares was because they wanted to protect the business of PLDT. So if they sell it they will be putting the business of PLDT on the line,” she said noting that telecommunications firm is a much “greater” investment. “Even with a good price for Meralco, they will not sell because of that.”

In addition, Tan said the offer of P300 per share is already an attractive deal for the Lopezes who had originally intended to sell half of their Meralco stake and hold the remainder for “two to three years” for better prices.

“We think even P200 per share is already a good deal for Meralco based on our fair value of P130 to P140 per share ,” she added. “So there doesn’t seem to be a lot of incentives for the Lopezes to keep [the stake] if they are given a good offer.”

The board of First Holdings said it will discuss TriRatna’s offer tomorrow.

Shares of Meralco jumped 13.29 percent to P213 apiece yesterday. Likewise, First Holdings also saw its share price rise 5.26 percent to close at P50.