Metro Pacific’s tollway arm allots P2.5B for 2013 capex

MANILA, Philippines - Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC), a unit of First Pacific’s Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), has earmarked P2.5 billion for its capital expenditures next year to bankroll major road projects particularly at the North Luzon expressway (NLEX).

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), MPTC chief finance officer Christopher Daniel Lizo said the bulk of the budget for next year would be used for the construction of the segment 9 project at NLEX.

 “MPTC has budgeted P2.5 billion as capital expenditure for 2013, a significant amount of which is earmarked for the construction of NLEX segment 9,” Lizo stressed.

The company is spending about P1.6 billion to bankroll segment involving the construction of a 2.1-kilometer expressway from NLEX Cloverleaf to McArthur Highway in Valenzuela.

The road segment also involves the construction of a four-lane highway with an interchange and two vehicular overpasses.

Furthermore, the company is also spending P600 million to connect NLEX with the 94-kilometer Subic-Clark-Tarlac expressway (SCTEX)

Next year’s budget for capital expenditures is five times the P500 million it allotted this year to fund major road projects.

MPTC through Tollways Management Corp. (TMC) entered into an operation and maintenance agreement with Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) and committed to invest P20 billion to improve SCTEX until 2043.

MPTC operates the 84-kilometer NLEX through Manila North Luzon Tollways Corp. (MNTC).

MNTC president and chief executive officer Rodrigo Franco said last month that the company would raise at least P16 billion from the domestic debt market over the next four years to bankroll ongoing road projects connecting to NLEX.

MNTC is set to start a road project worth at least P2.2 billion on November that would link NLEX to Valenzuela.

The second is the eight-kilometer NLEX Harbor Link project worth P8 billion that would connect the NLEX main to the Manila North Road (MacArthur Highway) in Valenzuela City and eventually to the C-3 Road. The project involves the construction of an elevated highway over the existing rail right-of-way of the Philippine National Railways (PNR).

On the other hand, the third segment involving the NLEX and C-5 Road link would cost around P10 billion and would be started by the middle of next year. The project would dramatically decongest traffic along Commonwealth Ave. and Quezon Ave.

The NLEX C-5 Link and the Harbor Link projects comprise Phase 2 of MNTC’s Manila North Expressway concession to provide an east-west expressway alignment traversing heavily-congested areas of northern Metro Manila and would dramatically reduce travel time within the expressway corridor.

MNTC sees a two percent to three percent rise in revenues to about P6.5 billion this year on the back of higher volume that is expected to hit about 162,000 vehicles per day from about 159,000 vehicles per day last year.