“We don’t know yet. Clearly, it’s no longer servicing its purpose,” said Pangilinan, who added that his group is keeping the listed firm, which ceased to operate as a phone company. This, until it can finally decide on what to do with it.

PCEV’s sole purpose is to hold shares in Meralco. PCEV is 99.5-percent owned by Smart Communications Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of PLDT. Separately, PLDT president Napoleon Nazareno said PCEV will continue to be a holding company of Beacon.

When asked if there are new investments that his group is interested to take a look at Pangilinan said, “For telco, there is none. For power, it would have to be done through Meralco.” 

Two weeks ago, Pangilinan’s group has completed the full consolidation of its near-controlling stake in Meralco under holding firm Beacon Electric Asset Holdings Inc. 

Beacon, a 50-50 venture between listed firms Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and PCEV, acquired the remaining 6.1-percent Meralco interest held by the latter for P15.136 billion. The shares were acquired at P220 apiece.

This brings Beacon’s ownership in the power retailer to 45.35 percent.

To acquire the shares, Beacon will issue 1.199 billion preferred shares to PCEV, valued at the acquisition cost. The preferred shares will pay a dividend rate of 7 percent per annum. 

PCEV, formerly known as Pilipino Telephone Corp., reported a core net income of P1.3 billion for the first six months of the year from P1.1 billion recorded in the same period last year. The earnings are mainly from the direct equity share in the net income of Meralco. Its reported net income for the first six months of the year stood at P853 million compared with P872 million in 2010. 

Meralco’s consolidated reported net income for the first half of 2011 of P6.1 billion increased by 26 percent against the same period in 2010, owing to the implementation of rate adjustments. The power retailer wants to go into power generation and announced plans to put up 1,500 megawatts of capacity through 2016.