Metro Pacific raises P8.64 B from private placement

MANILA, Philippines - Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), the local flagship of Hong Kong-based conglomerate First Pacific Co. Ltd., said yesterday it has placed P8.64 billion worth of new shares with existing and new investors to bankroll investments in the toll road business.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, MPIC said it priced the 2.400 billion shares it sold at P3.60 apiece in a private placement managed by CLSA Ltd. and JP Morgan Securities Ltd.

The placement price is at a premium of 1.1 percent to MPIC’s 30-day volume weighted average share price as of Thursday, July 7, 2011. The placement was conducted overnight and garnered strong interest from institutional investors from Asia, Europe and the US as well as from MPIC’s major shareholder, Metro Pacific Holdings Inc.

“This undertaking prepares us for the planned expansion of our toll roads business that will bring us closer to realizing our vision of connecting the North Expressway to the South into one seamless highway,” said Jose Ma. K. Lim, president and chief executive officer of MPIC.

MPIC’s tollway subsidiary, Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC), has won the P64-billion contract to operate the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx), a 94-kilometer tollway linking Central Luzon’s three major economic zones – Clark Freeport Zone, Subic Bay Freeport Zone and Central Techno Park in Tarlac.

Under the terms of the contract which was awarded June 9, the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) shall lease to MNTC the SCTEx and assign to it the concession to manage, operate and maintain the tollway for a period of 25 years, renewable for another eight years.

The BCDA, which was mandated to develop former military bases in Central Luzon and Metro Manila, will also assign MNTC its toll operations rights, “including the right to collect toll revenues.”

In return, MNTC shall pay BCDA a semi-annual lease/concession fee amounting to the peso equivalent of the yen-denominated loan that was used to build the SCTEx.

MNTC was considered the sole eligible bidder for SCTEx after rival Northlink Tollway Management Inc., a joint venture between San Miguel Corp. and Star Tollways Corp., failed to meet technical requirements.