4 property giants form powerhouse team

MANILA, Philippines - Four of the biggest names in Philippine business are joining forces to form a powerhouse team that hopes to snag the government’s largest Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project to date.

Holding firm Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. (AEV), real estate giants Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) and Megaworld Corp., and SM Prime Holdings Inc. (SMPH) have teamed up for the first time to form Trident Infrastructure and Development Corp., a consortium which yesterday filed the pre-qualification documents with the Department of Public Work and Highways for the P123.8-billion Laguna Lakeshore Expressway and Dike Project.

With its bid, Trident hopes to design, construct, operate and maintain the Laguna Lake Expressway-Dike Project under the PPP program of the government.

Under the agreement of the four big Filipino companies, each of the members will have an equal share of 25 percent in the project.

Trident will combine the infrastructure expertise, reclamation and land development experience of AEV, ALI, Megaworld and SMPH.

The consortium is also seen to benefit from the combined financial muscle and the national and international network of experts the four companies have.

 “Trident brings together the expertise, experience, financial strength, and network that is needed to successfully execute a project the size and scale of Laguna Lakeshore Expressway and Dike Project,” the consortium said.

 “Trident is a joint venture company incorporated formed for purposes of pre-qualifying for the bidding and evaluating the feasibility of the project,” the super team added.

San Miguel Holdings Corp. of diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. also submitted its bid   documents yesterday. SMC has a market capitalization of P185.5 billion.

Alloy-PAVI Hanshin LLED Consortium composed of Malaysia’s MTD Group, the  Villar Group and Korean reclamation developer Hanshin Construction Corp. and Korea Rural Corp. also  tendered its bid documents followed by the Rainbow Consortium 

DPWH Undersecretary Rafael Yabut told reporters that the agency is set to complete the evaluation of qualification documents submitted by the bidders as early as within seven days.

 According to Yabut, the tentative schedule for the opening of financial bids is on July 6 after which the PPP project would be awarded to the highest bidder within one month.

He said the agency was satisfied with the turn out during yesterday’s bidding as most of the 24 companies that bought bid documents formed groups.