20% of tollways unit up for sale MPIC seeks foreign strategic partner

MANILA, Philippines - Infrastructure giant Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) is set to restart the process of taking in a foreign strategic partner in Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) this year.

MPTC president Ramoncito Fernandez said the company is reviving plans to sell a 20-percent stake in MPTC preferably to a foreign strategic investor to help firm up efforts to pursue more infrastructure projects this year.

Fernandez said plans to sell a 20-percent stake in MPTC was put on hold last year but would now be revived after the MPIC unit was finally awarded the concession for the 94-kilometer Subic – Clark – Tarlac expressway.

The Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) approved the take over of the toll road after no bidders showed up during a price challenge conducted last Jan. 30.

The company, according to him, is also hopeful that the much delayed P18 billion North Luzon expressway (NLEX) and South Luzon expressway (SLEX) connector road would be approved by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).

“Now, maybe we can restart the process with SCTEX getting clearer and hopefully, once we get NEDA approval on the connector road,” Fernandez said.

MPIC owns 99.8 percent of MPTC – the largest toll road operator in the Philippines accounting for 63 percent of the country’s total 320-kilometer toll road network.

MPTC was originally looking at selling a 20 percent stake for interested investors last year after Malacañang scrutinized the contracts of its major projects.

The Palace ordered a price challenge for the SCTEX and a swiss challenge for the NLEX-SLEX connector road.

“It did not push through last year because the timing was not yet right with the issues on the connector road and SCTEX,” Fernandez said.

The MPIC unit is looking at raising as much as P70 billion from the transaction.

Rodrigo Franco, president of Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC), said the company is spending more than P10 billion for its capital expenditures this year for NLEX and SCTEX.

Franco said MNTC is spending close to P6 billion for the completion of P1.59- billion 2.42-km Segment 9 linking NLEX to the MacArthur Highway in Valenzuela City as well as the start of the construction of P10.7-billion 5.65-km Segment 10 from Valenzuela City all the way to C3 Road in Caloocan City.

He added that the company would also have to shell out the upfront P3.5 billion payment upon signing of the concession agreement for SCTEX with the BCDA.

According to him, the company is looking at spending P1 billion to further improve the SCTEX.

“We still need to study carefully on what kind of works we need to do sa SCTEX before we take over,” Franco said.

MPTC owns 71 percent of Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC) that operates NLEX and SCTEX, 100 percent of Cavitex Infrastructure Corp. that operates the 14-km Cavitex, 46 percent of Tollways Management Corp (TMC), and 29.45 percent of Thailand’s Don Muang Tollway Public Company Ltd (DMT) via FPM Infrastructure Holdings Ltd.