Merkado Barkada
October 27, 2025 | 9:00am
Maynilad [MYNLD 15.00] [link] has exercised the full upsize option for its initial public offering, following strong investor demand that was reportedly nearly twice oversubscribed at the institutional level. MYNLD said it would offer an additional 354.7 million common shares ahead of the close of its IPO offer period on October 29. The move is expected to raise an extra P5.3 billion, bringing total proceeds from the share sale—priced at P15 per share—to as much as P34.33 billion for Metro Manila’s West Zone water concessionaire. President and CEO Ramoncito Fernandez said, “the decision to exercise the upsize option in full reflects the market’s confidence that Maynilad is a company with strong financial fundamentals and is primed for long-term growth.” MYNLD is set to list on November 7, marking the country’s largest (and last) IPO of 2025.
> Unofficial Twitter Poll: I asked Twitter if it was interested in buying the MYNLD IPO, and the results were 39% “yes” and 61% “no”. This is by no means scientific, and there’s a just a metric buttload of potential sampling issues, not the least of which being my implied distaste for this IPO as evidenced by the act of just asking the question. But I think it does demonstrate that this isn’t the kind of no-brainer populist knockout that we saw with MerryMart and its ilk back in the day.
MB BOTTOM-LINE: The price drop implies a ~7% yield at the new IPO price, which is pretty good. But that kind of return isn’t all that rare. Yeah, there’s interesting upside, because this isn’t a REIT or a bond, but instead a massive water concessionaire monopoly with a fairly unique capex cycle, and that’s the “fun” of this IPO. Which of the views will end up being the more accurate assessment of value? The REIT/dividend play view, or the “execution risk” view so eloquently discussed by Jet Mojica in his MB Friends article (link) from earlier this month? The value/price part of this puzzle is by far the most important, but context matters. Rates are stale and falling. Our market kind of sucks, but it’s actually an exception to the global tide. Economies around the world are faltering. The US is just closing its eyes and taking its hands off the wheel. We can’t seem to keep our own politicians from shooting us in the foot. Again, you just do what is right for you! There are no easy ways here to make money. There are no sure things.
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