The tollway unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. said on Tuesday it plans to raise about P30 billion in the fourth quarter of the year to partly finance the construction of two expressway projects in Manila and Cebu.
“We are raising funds, in fact we are raising debt financing by fourth quarter of the year,” Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. president and chief executive Rodrigo Franco told reporters on the sidelines of the Philippine Investment Forum organized by Euromoney.
“It would be around P30 billion for the two projects, but it’s still tentative. Maybe we can reach financial closing by early next year,” he said.
Franco identified the projects as the P35.4-billion Cavite Laguna Expressway and the P27.9 billion Cebu-Cordova Bridge.
“For Calax, the construction would be next year and the right of way is ongoing. [For the Cordova Bridge], we are hoping to start construction by second half of next year,” Franco added.
MPIC’s unit MPCala Holdings Inc. secured a contract to finance, design, construct, operate and maintain Calax, a four-lane, 47-kilometer closed-system toll expressway connecting the Cavitex and South Luzon Expressway.
The expressway will start from the CavitEx in Kawit, Cavite and end at the SLEX-Mamplasan Interchange in Binan, Laguna.
Metro Pacific Tollways Development Corp., meanwhile, secured the notice of award from both the City of Cebu and the municipality of Cordova for the financing, design, construction, implementation, operation and maintenance of the Cebu-Cordova Bridge tollroad subject to compliance with conditions.
The project spans 8.3 kilometers, which will link the island of Mactan to mainland Cebu through the municipality of Cordova. The Cordorva Bridge is expected to be completed by 2020.
Franco also expects the Public Works Department to issue the notice of awards this week for the P23.2-billion NLEx-SLEx Connector Road after the Department of Finance issued a statement that the agency can award the project to MPTC without creating a special purpose corporation.
“Creating an SPC is more expensive even your borrowing costs will be higher. So, we think it’s more efficient if we consolidated to NLEX [North Luzon Expressway]. In fact the heart of the proposal is an integrated system,” Franco said.
He said the project would be done through Manila North Tollways Corp.
The project involves the construction of an eight-kilometer, four-lane toll road that will link the existing NLEx and SLEx, passing through Metro Manila and using the existing Philippine National Railway alignment as its route.
The project is expected to start by late 2018 and would be completed in three years.
The Metro Pacific Group, which corners 60 percent of the Philippines’ toll road industry, operates North Luzon Expressway, Subic Clark Tarlac Expressway and the Manila Cavite Expressway.