Five foreign companies have expressed interest in teaming up with the tollway unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. for its expressway projects, an executive of Manila North Tollways Corp. said Wednesday.
MNTC president and chief executive Rodrigo Franco said he had initial talks with five foreign firms during an investment and infrastructure roadshow in the United States in June for possible partnerships.
“They are looking for investment opportunities in the Philippines and they are interested in rail and roads,” Franco said.
“We are open to partnerships. We are still trying to figure out if it’s at the MPTC [Metro Pacific Tollways Corp.] level or at the project level. We still have that option. It could be at the MPTC or it could be at Calax [Cavite-Laguna Expressway],” he said.
Metro Pacific earlier said it planned to sell its 20-percent stake in MPTC with an estimated value of P16 billion.
MPIC owns 99.88 percent of Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., which in turn owns 71 percent of MNTC, 46 percent of Tollways Management Corp., 100 percent of Cavitex Infrastructure Corp. and 7.4 percent of Don Muang Tollway Public Co. Ltd.
Metro Pacific chairman Manuel Pangilinan earlier said the company was also open to a partnership for the P35.4-billion Cavite Laguna Expressway project.
“If anything, minimum, I suppose, is about 20 percent,” Pangilinan had said, when asked if the company was willing to share a stake in the unit.
MPCala Holdings Inc., a unit of MPIC, which won the Calax project, was searching for a partner to develop the four-lane, 47-kilometer closed-system toll expressway connecting Manila-Cavite Expressway and South Luzon Expressway.
The Public Works Department on Monday awarded the Calax Expressway project to MPCala, which submitted the top offer during the government’s second attempt to bid out the project.
MPCala submitted a premium bid of P27.3 billion for the 47-kilometer toll road, beating the P22.2-billion offer by San Miguel Corp.’s Optimal Infrastructure Development Inc.
The Public Works Department said it expected MPCALA Holdings to sign the contract this week. Construction period would cover July 2016 to July 2020, while operations and maintenance would be from July 2020 to July 2050.
The expressway will start from Cavitex in Kawit, Cavite and end at the SLEX-Mamplasan Interchange in Biñan, Laguna.