Megawide secures P2.9-B loan for Orthopedic Center

MANILA, Philippines - The consortium led by Megawide Construction Corp. has secured a P2.9-billion loan from state-run banks to finance the rehabilitation of the decades-old Philippine Orthopedic Center in Quezon City.

In a disclosure to the local stock exchange, Megawide said its joint venture with World Citi Inc. had entered into an omnibus loan and security agreement with Land Bank of the Philippines, Land Bank of the Philippines-Trust Banking Group and Development Bank of the Philippines.

“That is only a portion of the financing requirements,” Megawide chief financial officer Oliver Tan said, adding that the loan will have a 12-year tenor.

“Interest will be set on the drawdown date,” he said.

Megawide World Citi Consortium Inc. won last year the P5.7-billion Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project involving the modernization of the Philippine Orthopedic Center.

The build-operate-transfer project features the construction of a 700-bed super-specialty tertiary orthopedic hospital located within the National Kidney and Transplant Institute compound along East Ave.

Megawide, which started as a contractor for residential towers particularly those of SM Development Corp., corners 15 to 17 percent of the high-rise construction business in the Philippines and is currently one of the country’s top building contractors.

World Citi, its partner for the hospital upgrading project, operates the 276-bed World Citi Medical Center on Aurora Blvd.

Megawide’s net profit dropped 26 percent to P556.06 million in the first half of this year from P747.96 million in 2013 as it jacked up expenses for the upgrading of its software licenses.