Power retailer Manila Electric Co. is looking at another technical partnership in a distribution utility in Nigeria, a top executive said.
“There is another distribution utility in Nigeria who asked us to be their technical partner as well. This will be in addition to Ibadan,” Meralco president Oscar Reyes said.
Meralco and partner Integrated Energy Distribution and Marketing Ltd. took over the operations of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company Plc. and Yola Electricity Distribution Co. Plc. in November 2013.
Reyes did not identify the other distribution company Meralco was eyeing in Nigeria.
“We are working to improve operations [in Nigeria]. We would like to see how this progresses,” Reyes said earlier.
Reyes said capital investment costs would be provided by IEDM while Meralco was working towards lowering systems loss.
IEDM is a special purpose vehicle specifically incorporated in 2006 to carry on the business of electricity distribution and marketing in the emerging Nigerian electricity market.
Meralco acted as the technical partner of IEDM in bidding for the distribution assets in Nigeria. Meralco had a 5-percent stake in IEDM.
Meralco chairman Manuel Pangilinan earlier said Meralco was open to increasing its stake in the Nigerian distribution business to 20 percent.
“We are open to it, but it depends on the exact nature of viability of investment. We’d like to take a look at it from the point of view of being more a service provider to IEDM,” Pangilinan said.
Meralco’s investment in Nigeria is the company’s first distribution footprint overseas.