Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) has served notice of its intention to withdraw from the controversial Power Distribution Services (PDS) concession deal with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
The Filipino company is blaming unfavourable political situation in Ghana for its decision.
Meralco president and CEO Ray Espinosa was reported to have said the company was planning to pull out its investment in Ghana’s power distribution utility if the political situation does not improve.
Meralco has 48 percent stake in PDS that was contracted by the government of Ghana to manage the operations of the ECG for 20 years starting from Friday, March 1, 2019.
However, the government of Ghana suspended the PDS deal on July 30 after discovering that the Demand Guarantee provided by the company was fraudulently acquired.
Read: Revealing: Fraudster secured ECG deal for PDS
“We’re still waiting for developments. It’s a Ghana government issue,” Meralco president was quoted as saying.
The company in a response to the Philippine Stock Exchange’s probe into the development on September 23 maintained the position as espoused by the president.
“With reference to the said news article, we would like to confirm the statements attributed to our President and CEO, Atty. Ray C. Espinosa with regards to the Company’s investment in Ghana.
“We also would like to inform the Exchange that the suspension of the concession agreement as reported in the Company’s July 31, 2019 disclosure, had been indefinitely extended by the Government of Ghana,” Gesline F. Almero, Senior Assistant Vice President and Head of Financial Reporting, told the Exchange.
By Isaac Essel | 3news.com | Ghana]]>