In Washington
Zibusiso Sibanda
Phone:
E-mail: ZSibanda@ifc.org

In Manila
Lumen Balboa
Phone: +632 848 7333
E-mail: LBalboa@ifc.org


Washington, D.C. October 19, 2007—Manila Water Company, the leading private water utility company in the Philippines, today received IFC’s Client Leadership Award, which recognizes the company’s extraordinary success in rehabilitating a utility and providing affordable access to water for poor people.

The Client Leadership Award acknowledges a highly successful corporate client, which in line with IFC’s mission, has demonstrated its management’s commitment to environmental and social sustainability and corporate governance, while achieving commercial success.

Antonino Aquino, President of Manila Water Company, said, “IFC has been a valuable partner in helping us prove that business objectives and sustainability initiatives, which are the core of our business strategy, are perfectly aligned. We are honored to receive this award and proud of our long-standing partnership with IFC. We hope to enhance this valuable relationship as we continue to grow.”

Announcing the award, IFC Executive Vice President and CEO Lars Thunell, said, “Manila Water’s innovative programs to bring water to poor people and its success in supplying the city’s eastern zone are just some of the ways that the company embodies IFC’s ideals in social sustainability and corporate governance.”

In 1997, the government awarded Manila Water a 25-year concession for the eastern zone of the country’s capital region. At that time, only 26 percent of 325,000 households in metropolitan Manila had, at best, limited access to clean and affordable piped-in water.

In a decade after taking over the concession, the company has increased the number of households with water connections to over a million, 98 percent of which have a 24-hour water supply. It has also substantially reduced its revenue losses from leaks and illegal connections.

Manila Water continues to meet business objectives, showing 47 percent growth in the past six years. It was able to raise $65 million from its initial public offering in 2005 to continue investing in water and wastewater infrastructure services. Since 2003, IFC has provided three $30 million loans to the company and an additional $15 million in equity prior to its IPO.

Manila Water is the first company in the Philippines to develop, with IFC’s assistance, a sustainability report. This inspired its parent company, one of the largest conglomerates in the country, to develop a similar report. The company has also developed a corporate governance manual.

Manila Water also serves as an example of World Bank Group collaboration, having obtained a $64 million loan in 2004 from an IBRD facility through a government bank for the expansion and upgrading of its sewerage infrastructure.

About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, fosters sustainable economic growth in developing countries by financing private sector investment, mobilizing private capital in local and international financial markets, and providing advisory and risk mitigation services to businesses and governments. IFC’s vision is that poor people have the opportunity to escape poverty and improve their lives. In FY07, IFC committed $8.2 billion and mobilized an additional $3.9 billion through loan participations and structured finance for 299 investments in 69 developing countries. IFC also provided advisory services in 97 countries. For more information, visit www.ifc.org.

About Manila Water Company
A publicly listed company, MWC’s shareholders include the Ayala Corporation (with a 30 percent share), as well as BPI Capital, IFC, Japan's Mitsubishi Corp, and the United Kingdom's United Utilities Plc. The company won a competitive tender in 1997 to operate the eastern water and wastewater concession that serves about 5.5 million people in metropolitan Manila. Since then, it has invested over $338 million, of which part was used to rehabilitate facilities it inherited. To date, MWC has provided water connections to over a million additional people, nearly half of whom are low-income and live in informal settler communities.