New tollway to bring in P30 billion revenue for MPTC

MANILA, Philippines — Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) is scheduled to sign this week the concession for toll operations in Indonesia, a contract expected to generate around P30 billion in revenue per year.

On the sidelines of the opening of an MPTC project in Parañaque City, MPTC chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said the company will sign this week the concession for its largest tollway outside the Philippines.

MPTC won the bidding for a 35 percent share in PT Jasamarga Transjawa Tol, the operator of a 676-kilometer segment of the Trans-Java Toll.

Once the deal is signed, MPTC will work on the financial closing of the project with Jasamarga. The company will then be able to add to its portfolio an expressway used by at least 800,000 motorists every day.

Pangilinan said MPTC expects to gain about P30 billion in revenue per year from this venture alone, more than double than the P27.21 billion it earned from Philippine toll operations in 2023.

MPTC said at least 1.2 million vehicles go through its toll roads every day last year, and adding the Trans-Java Toll may push this daily count up to two million.

“Roughly, (the tollway will facilitate) 750,000 to 800,000 vehicles per day, and it is the longest tollway in Indonesia,” Pangilinan said.

For this concession, MPTC has teamed up with Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte. Ltd. in bidding for a stake in Jasamarga.

MPTC is determined to expand its portfolio within and outside of the Philippines to take advantage of the recovering traffic in the aftermath of the pandemic. In the country, it will pursue a P72-billion project with San Miguel Corp. (SMC) to put up the Cavite-Batangas Expressway and the Nasugbu-Bauan Expressway.

Meanwhile, MPTC, through Metro Pacific Tollways Asia, owns 40 percent of the operator of the Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Flyover in Indonesia. It also manages two projects in Vietnam, the Hanoi Highways Expansion Phase 2 and the Rach Mieu Bridge.

The addition of the Trans-Java Toll in MPTC’s toll network will play a crucial role in finalizing the value of the joint venture that Pangilinan and SMC’s Ramon Ang are forming.

Pangilinan and Ang are negotiating the possibility of merging their toll interests with the goal of listing a tollway giant at the Philippine Stock Exchange.