First Philippine Holdings FPH decided last night, after an extended board meeting, to accept Metro Pacific Investments' MPI counter bid for a 6.7% stake in Manila Electric Company Meralco at a total cost of Ps22.4 billion $470 million.
MPI used a right of first refusal to match, on a per share basis, a bid for FPH's entire 13.4% stake in Meralco made by the son of leading Philippine tycoon Henry Sy and will see its holdings in the power distributor increase to about 19.7% as a result of the deal.
The acquisition cost translates into Ps300 per share, which equals a 36% premium to Meralco's close at Ps217 yesterday. The share price has...