Maharlika eyes ₱35-37B investments

Maharlika Investment Corp. (MIC), which manages the Philippines' first sovereign wealth fund, is eyeing at least three new investments before the year ends, aiming to bring total capital commitments to as much as P37 billion just two years into its establishment.

- By BEN ARNOLD DE VERA and MYRNA M. VELASCO

In a telephone interview on Thursday, May 8, MIC President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Rafael D. Consing Jr. said that from the current P28-29 billion in investments, additional commitments worth an estimated total of under P10 billion are in the pipeline across three or more upcoming projects.

To date, the one-and-a-half-year-old Maharlika Investment Fund has undertaken a P19.7-billion investment in National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), where it now holds a 20-percent stake; MIC's strategic partnership with Thailand's Charoen Pokphand Group Co. Ltd. for investments in agriculture and food production, digital innovation, as well as sustainable energy; and a $76.4-million bridge loan to Makilala Mining Co. Inc. to develop the Maalinao-Caigutan-Biyog copper-gold project in Kalinga province.

As the NGCP stake acquisition is MIC's first and flagship investment, the upcoming ventures would be smaller in amount, Consing said.

The P35-37 billion in total investments targeted for deployment by year-end will also include an upcoming transportation and logistics infrastructure transaction, he disclosed.