NLEX Corp., a unit of Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., plans to go back to the bond market in the fourth quarter of the year to raise funds for the P16-billion NLEx-SLEx Connector Road project.
NLEX president Rodrigo Franco said in an interview at the sidelines of the listing of the company’s P6-billion fixed-rate bonds with Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp. the toll road operator might issue the second tranche of bonds from its P25-billion bond shelf registration.
The company is finalizing the size of the second tranche of the bond offering. Depending on the condition of the market, Franco said the company might also opt to fund the connector road project through a bank debt.
He said the company was preparing the funds needed for the connector road whose construction is scheduled to start by early 2019.
“We are now doing some preliminary works for the connector road project but the full-blast construction will start by early next year,” Franco said.
The NLEx-SLEx Connector Road is an eight-kilometer, four-lane toll road linking the North Luzon Expressway and South Luzon Expressway, passing through Metro Manila and using the existing Philippine National Railway alignment as the route.
The project is expected to decongest traffic in Metro Manila by providing an alternative entry to NLEx, bypassing Edsa and C5, which are both congested.
Franco said the company may also borrow roughly P12 billion to finance the construction of Cavite Laguna Expressway project.
“That will be through bank loan,” he said.
Calax, one of the largest public-private partnership projects, involves the construction of a four-lane, 47-kilometer closed-system toll expressway connecting Cavitex (Manila–Cavite Expressway) and South Luzon Expressway.
The P34.5-billion expressway will start from Cavitex in Kawit, Cavite, and end at the SLEx-Mamplasan Interchange in Biñan, Laguna.
Construction is expected to be completed by 2020, while operations and maintenance are set from 2020 to 2050.
NLEX will use proceeds from the P6-billion, 7 and 10-year bonds to partially finance the construction of R-10 Section Project, a 2.6-km elevated toll road, that will extend the C-3 Road exit ramp to R-10 Road near the Port Area.