Philco Aero pushes Clark airport proj

MANILA, Philippines - Diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC), which acquired majority ownership of Philco Aero Inc., is asking the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) to resume and accelerate their long-delayed negotiations for the $177-million Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) Terminal 2 project.

Philco Aero, until recently a privately held Filipino-Korean consortium, is the original proponent of the DMIA T2 project whose unsolicited proposal for this multi-million dollar venture was accepted by the CIAC board on May 17, 2010.

SMC has put up a holding company which recently acquired 70 percent of Philco Aero to conclude a transaction that began early last year. Penson and Co. Inc., SMC’s partner in the venture, will own 30 percent of the holding company.

After a meeting with San Miguel officials yesterday, Philco Aero president and CEO Ricardo L. Penson disclosed that SMC is keen on advancing the long delayed negotiations with CIAC for the T2 project as “the delay is causing undue inconvenience to the public in general and to the PPP (Public-Private Partnerships) efforts of the Aquino administration in particular, which we fully support.”

According to the provisions of the detailed guidelines for competitive challenge procedure for public-private joint ventures of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) which cover PPPs, once the concerned government agency accepts a project proposal, it goes on to the next step in the process: The detailed negotiation stage.

Penson said Philco Aero has forwarded to CIAC all the supporting documents on the technical and financial aspects of their proposal. Implementation will be staged to three, five, seven million passengers per year based on a trigger mechanism agreed upon with the government. The new DMIA international terminal is expected to have the highest green rating for a Philippine airport.

”We are fully prepared for the continuation of detailed negotiations in accordance with stage 2 of NEDA’s jv guidelines,” he added. “We reaffirm and stand by the technical feasibility and viability of our proposal, and we are looking forward to the detailed negotiation stage, as well as the final ‘Swiss challenge’ phase where any comparative or competitive bidder can challenge our proposal.”

Penson said Philco Aero, is studying all available legal remedies to jumpstart the process which was initially delayed while awaiting new appointees to CIAC, and then by the CIAC’s commissioning of a new airport master plan late last year. “After three prior meetings, any other impediment or new development can be addressed during the resumption of negotiations,” Penson said. “We intend to present to CIAC our economically viable solution for transporting passengers to and from metropolitan Manila as well.” He noted that the holding company, which is envisioned to serve as SMC’s airport infrastructure arm, is eager to add the DMIA T2 project to its airports portfolio following its concession to the Boracay gateway, Caticlan International Airport, which upgraded terminal was inaugurated by President Aquino last June.

Philco Aero has partnered with Korea Airports Corp. and Korea Telecom for the operation, maintenance and systems integration of the project. Both entities will hold minimal equity in the company. Recently, the Korean embassy in support of the Philco Aero project and other infrastructure projects announced a $500-million economic package for the Philippines.