MPTC to deliver P8-B promised toll revenues this year

MANILA, Philippines - Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC), the largest toll road operator in the Philippines, is confident of delivering the promised revenues of P8 billion this year on the back of higher traffic on the Manila Cavite Toll Expressway (Cavitex).

MPTC chief financial officer Christopher Daniel Lizo said higher revenues from Cavitex would augment the revenues from the South Luzon expressway (SLEX).

 â€œWe are on track because of Cavitex,” Lizo said.

MPTC, a unit of infrastructure conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), infused P6.8 billion to take over the 14-kilometer Cavitex late last year. It entered into a financing and cooperation agreement with Cavitex Holdings Inc. (formerly Coastal Road Corp.).

Under the agreement, Cavite Holdings would issue a convertible note to MPTC that would give MPTC the option to convert in the future new, non-voting redeemable convertible preference shares in CHI or common shares of Cavitex Infrastructure Corp., formerly UEM-Mara Philippines Corp.

In the first half of the year, toll revenues of MPTC jumped 20 percent to P4.1 billion from P3.42 billion in the same period last year as average daily vehicle entries grew five percent to 173,175 from 164,415.

The company’s core income surged 27 percent to P1.03 billion in the first semester from P810 million in the same period last year translating to a 21-percent jump in net income to P981 million from P808 million.

Last year, MPTC booked a five-percent increase in toll revenues to P6.78 billion last year from P6.46 billion in 2011 amid the three-percent increase in average daily vehicle entries to 163,362 from 158,342.

The company’s net income surged 17 percent to P1.47 billion from P1.26 billion while its core income grew six percent to P1.57 billion from P1.48 billion.

MPTC is the largest toll road operator in the Philippines, operating 64 percent of the total 300 kilometers of toll roads in the country including the 85-km NLEX, the 94-km Subic-Clark-Tarlac expressway (SCTEX), and the 13.75-km Manila Cavite toll expressway (Cavitex).

MPIC has allocated over P41 billion for the construction of major road projects over the next five years.