Universal LRT elects new directors

Universal LRT Corp. Ltd. announced yesterday the election of Antonio Henson and Jose Sio, who are the president and executive vice president/CFO, respectively, of SM Investments Corp. (SMIC), as new directors of ULC.

The statement clarified that the new directors were elected to represent the SM Group of Companies following the successful private placement of ULC shares by PentaCapital Investment Corp. (Penta-Capital) to a group of financial investors led by SMIC. As a consequence of the private placement, ULC also announced that it is now seeking approval from the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) to call the LRT 7 Line, the "MRT 7-SM Line" due to the strategic connections of the LRT stations to the SM City North and SM Fairview malls and a new road link to the future SM Marilao mall.

ULC revealed that the SM Group was granted the right to build a new commercial mall in the depot of the MRT 7-SM Line which will end in Bulacan.

ULC is the project developer of the proposed $1.5 billion integrated road-rail transportation MRT 7-SM Line project that will link Marilao, Bulacan to EDSA at North Avenue under a variance of the build, operate and transfer (BOT) model. The project is now in an advanced stage of evaluation by the DOTC.

The entry of the new financial investors is seen expediting the development of the MRT 7-SM Line project and strengthening the ULC consortium which includes, among others: The Alstrom Group (one of the world’s largest transportation systems provider); E. L. International Holdings Ltd., EEI (the construction company of the Yuchengco Group) and Earth Tech (a member of US-based Tyco International). It should be recalled that E. L. International Holdings and PentaCapital also collaborated on the successful development of the EDSA MRT 3 Line which now services more than 350,000 passengers daily.

The MRT 7-SM Line is aimed at helping solve the traffic problems of Metro Manila via a "first of its kind" inter-modal station. The project calls for removing around 10,000 provincial buses from Metro Manila roads, requiring them to stop at a bus and maintenance depot in Bulacan and facilitating a seamless transfer of commuters to Metro Manila via various LRT lines.