Stock News 2013: MVP, SMC units in dead heat over Naia project

The Skyway System. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The concessionaire for the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) stage 2 expressway will be known this week once the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) opens the financial bids of the two firms vying for the deal.

Manuel V. Pangilinan’s Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC) and San Miguel Corp. subsidiary Optimal Infrastructure Development Corp. were the only two bidders that submitted technical and financial bids for the P13.61-billion project last week.

Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center Executive Director Cosette Canilao said both have passed the government’s post-qualification checks of their respective technical proposals.

Whether one technical proposal is better than the other will not be taken into account, Canilao said.

“In accordance with the BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) law, it’s just pass or fail. Once a bidder passes, the opening of its financial bid will be allowed,” Canilao said over the weekend.

The DPWH’s technical working group (TWG) has gone through the technical proposals of both firms, she said. Both proposals contain details of where the road will pass through, where the off-ramps will be located, and other features.

The TWG has not found any deficiency in either of the two technical bids, Canilao said.

MNTC currently manages the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx). Meanwhile, the San Miguel group, through various units, operate and manage the Metro Manila Skyway, the South Luzon Expressway and the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (Star toll).

Both groups are also building similar “connector roads” that would link the NLEx with Skyway, easing traffic in different parts of Metro Manila.

Conglomerate Ayala Corp. and Indian-owned M/S IL and FS Transportation Network were prequalified to bid for the project but both later on withdrew their respective proposals.

The Naia Expressway is the second phase of an existing project that will link Metro Manila Skyway, Manila’s airport complex and the Entertainment City—the country’s answer to Asian gaming centers like those in Macau and Singapore.

http://business.inquirer.net/116797/mvp-smc-units-in-dead-heat-over-naia-project

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Stock News 2012: DOTC moves to address San Miguel-MIPC row

200 px (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) has come out with a compromise solution to the issue on the funding of the shared portion of two separate roads that will link highways north and south of Metro Manila.

The issue had put two of the country’s top conglomerates—San Miguel Corp. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp.—on a collision course that threatened to delay the implementation of their respective projects both seen as cornerstones of the Aquino administration’s economic agenda.

San Miguel Corp., through subsidiary Citra Metro Manila Tollways Corp. (CMMTC), plans to extend the Metro Manila Skyway from Buendia, Makati to Balintawak, Quezon City, creating a nearly-seamless link with North Luzon Expressway.

MPIC, for its part, has a pending proposal to connect the NLEx with the Skyway via an alignment that follows the existing Philippine National Railways line from Tondo, Manila to Makati.

MPIC, through Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., holds the concession to NLEx, while CMMTC holds the concession to the Skyway.

Transportation Secretary Jun Abaya this week said the compromise deal would be incorporated in CMMTC’s revised concession for the Skyway. The deal will also be part of the Department of Public Works and Highways “Swiss” challenge for MPIC’s proposed connector road.

CMMTC’s planned project is part of its original concession deal for the Skyway. MPIC’s project, however, is an unsolicited proposal to the government and will, therefore, have to undergo a “Swiss” challenge, where other interested parties will be given the chance to submit better offers.

Abaya declined to give further details on the compromise deal. Officials from both CMMTC and MPIC were not available for comment to confirm if the concerned parties had accepted the government’s compromise proposal.

Worth about P7 billion, the 5-kilometer extension will be shared by Citra and MPIC, before their respective connectors veer off to their separate alignments.

http://business.inquirer.net/100041/dotc-moves-to-address-san-miguel-mipc-row

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Stock News: SMC, MPIC clash on road projects

The Skyway System. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Conglomerates Metro Pacific Investments Corp.  (MPIC) and San Miguel Corp. are on a collision course again over differing proposals on how to fund and build the shared portion of two north-to-south connector roads.

San Miguel-led Citra Metro Manila Tollways Corp. said it planned to build the shared Metro Manila Skyway extension from Buendia to the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) on its own and just get a reimbursement from MPIC after construction has been completed.

“I think our proposal is fair and makes the most sense. Everybody wins,” Citra president and CEO Shadik Wahono said at a press conference. “If we pay 50 percent of the cost, but receive less than 50 percent of the traffic, then it will be a negative investment on our part,” he said.

He said both firms would end up splitting the cost of construction of the shared road, with their respective contributions being determined by how much traffic they would separately bring in.

Worth an estimated P7 billion, the 5-kilometer extension will be shared by both Citra and MPIC, which both have approved proposals to construct roads on separate alignments that aim to connect the Skyway with the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx).

Both proposed roads, named the “connector road” for MPIC and Skyway Phase 3 for Citra, will start at the end of the shared portion before veering off in different directions to their respective alignments.

MPIC holds the concession to NLEx while Citra controls the Skyway.

“If more of the cars go to their connector, then they will have to pay a bigger portion of the bill. Conversely, if they have fewer cars, then their share will be smaller,” Wahono said. “The same goes with us.”

As with the cost of construction, Wahono said Citra’s proposal to the government also indicated that revenues from toll to be collected from motorists should be split between the two companies based on the share of traffic.

MPIC, chaired by Manuel V. Pangilinan, disagreed with Citra’s proposal, adding that the shared portion of both connectors should be built under a 50-50 joint venture.

“What we want is to be treated as a co-equal in this project. They want to go solo and just ask for a reimbursement from us [after construction]. We won’t allow that,” said Ramoncito Fernandez, president of MPIC unit Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., the unit handling the group’s road assets.

Fernandez went as far as to accuse Citra of “bad faith” for submitting a proposal to the government while negotiations with the MPIC group were still ongoing.

In a statement, Citra said its officials met with counterparts from MPIC several times to discuss the revenue-sharing scheme. The meetings happened on September 20, October 24 and November 14.

Citra claimed that last November 20, MPIC president and CEO Jose Ma. K. Lim agreed that the new Citra offer was superior to what MPIC had originally proposed.

In the earlier meetings, Citra said MPIC acknowledged the San Miguel group’s prior rights and concession over the so-called common alignment and it accepted that Citra would construct the common segment provided MPIC would be given proper connection at PUP.

MPIC also agreed that both parties would have toll plazas after the common segment and the common segment would charge based on an “open system” or fixed tolls to avoid interoperability issues.

http://business.inquirer.net/94971/smc-mpic-clash-on-road-projects

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