Lucio Co Swoops in to Acquire PrimeWater
The acquisition comes amid a swarm of complaints from the Villar-led water distributor's customers.
by JV Ordoñez
Published on Dec 16, 2025
An investment firm owned by business magnate Lucio Co has fully acquired local water distributor PrimeWater Infrastructure Corp., which is owned by tycoon Manny Villar.
On Tuesday (December 16), Crystal Bridges Holding Corp. of the Lucio Co group, announced the purchase of the water concessionaire. A photo release showed Villar, who is a former Senate President and current billionaire, posing with his eldest son Manuel Paolo Villar together with Lucio and his son Vincent Co.
The younger Co also heads local retailer Puregold Price Club.
PrimeWater is a unit of Prime Asset Ventures, Inc., which serves over 1.7 million Filipino families and supplies about 500 million liters of water daily across 100 water districts across the nation.
Earlier this year, President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr. ordered the Local Water Utilities Administration, which is tasked to supervise more than 500 water districts nationwide, to probe complaints against PrimeWater and its 73 joint venture deals with local water districts. PrimeWater is primarily engaged in water and wastewater infrastructure projects including bulk water supply, and sewage management services.
Co's Crystal Bridges will now oversee PrimeWater's entire portfolio of operations in the face of these disgruntled customers.
Co's vast business interests include Cosco Capital, Inc., Puregold, S&R Membership Shopping, and liquor distribution arm Keepers Holdings, after pivoting from the oil industry.
PrimeWater has faced numerous complaints from its customers over poor water services in its concession areas, which include Tuguegarao in Cagayan Province, parts of Central Luzon, Metro Manila, Calabarzon, the Visayas and Davao in Mindanao.
The Villar Group has also faced scrutiny in recent months after reports that some of its listed units—most notably Vista Land & Lifescapes and Golden Haven—are overvalued. This came to light after analysts and investors pointed out that reported asset values, particularly land banks and memorial park inventories, are carried at optimistic assumptions, while profits are often supported by related-party transactions within the Villar ecosystem, which, in turn, raised questions about transparency and true market pricing.
As a result, Villar Land set the final audited fair value of its newly acquired properties at P52.74 billion, which is far lower than its earlier estimate of P1.33 trillion, in the company's 2024 annual report submitted to the Philippine Stock Exchange website.
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