Meralco, the largest power company in the Philippines and previously controlled by the Lopez clan, has its stock price shot up to meteoric levels recently. Just 6 months ago, it has a flat price of around 60 pesos, now it has a current price of 272.50. This is 350% increase, if my math is correct. Simple investment example would be if you were able to purchase Php 100,000 worth of Meralco stocks last January 2009, then its current value right now would be Php 450,000. This is a quite amazing profit especially for a blue chip company like Meralco. The swings of blue chip companies are usually smaller because they are the more stable ones in the market. This is certainly because of the acquisition of shares from MVP and his PLDT group of 20% of Meralco from the Lopez family. Their plans of implementing smart grid and internet through power lines are catching the investor's interests.
After heavily investing on 3G infrastructure and bringing services such as wireless landline, telecommunications giant PLDT (Philippines Long Distance Telephone) is not just about to sleep on its laurels. They are now exploring the opportunity of offering another potential cash making product. And this is through broadband internet via power lines. Yes, those power posts from Meralco which has been delivering us electricity for many decades now, could actually supply us with high speed internet. Amazing and very futuristic. Actually this trend is being pursued by a lot of countries around the world led by United States of America. The end idea of this all being able to model the whole electricity supply chain into a 'Smart Grid'. This is a complex structural model wherein our homes will be equipped with 'Smart Appliances', and monitoring systems and sensors in order to be able to save on the electricity being consumed by each household. Currently, PLDT is pilot testing the 'Broadband over the Power Lines' in the area of Malabon. They are laying the infrastructure to enable this over the area. I just hope that their offering of broadband would be much cheaper and much better quality than the broadband we are using at the moment, which means reliable uptime and cheaper cost. This would definite be a technology that will bring us growth and for PLDT more cash. Investing in Meralco and PLDT would be wise if this would go into boom in the future.
