Metro Pacific Investments Corp. announced Tuesday the merger of Manila North Tollways Corp. and Tollways Management Corp. in a bid to create a financially strong company to fund new projects.
Both boards of MNTC and TMC approved the merger, with MNTC as the surviving corporation that will operate North Luzon Expressway, Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway and Manila-Cavite Expressway.
“We expect by combining the two [companies] you will have a stronger merged company that will be able to undertake important projects under the concession and the new projects that we recently won,” MNTC president and chief executive Rodrigo Franco told reporters during the inauguration of the expanded NLEx Bocaue toll barrier.
“The objective of the company is to have a more efficient and financially strong company that would have better access to capital to support our projects,” Franco said.
MNTC is the concessionaire of both NLEx and SCTEx projects. It is also one of the original proponents for the Connector Road Project linking North Luzon Expressway and South Luzon Expressway.
TMC is engaged in the operations and maintenance of tollways, its facilities, interchanges and related works.
The merger between MNTC and TMC will be submitted for approval of the shareholders of MNTC in November 2016.
Th transaction will be done through a share swap where shareholders will be given 2.7 MNTC common shares for every TMC share and 16.63 MNTC preferred shares for every TMC share.
The government owns 20 percent of TMC’ Egis of Frances, 34 percent; and Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., 46 percent.
The execution of the merger shall be subject to regulatory approvals, including the Philippine Competition Commission, and shall take effect 15 days after the approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Franco said the merger would need an approval from PCC because the transaction was worth over a billion pesos.
He expressed hope PCC would approve the transaction because it was “not anti-competitive.”
“We are not reducing competition. In the toll roads, there’s an alternative if you don’t want to pay toll, you can use the public road,” Franco said.
MNTC expanded the NLEx Bocaue toll barrier from 26 lanes to 34 lanes to cater to the increased traffic volume for the holidays.
“This project is a part of MNTC’s continuing commitment to provide motorists with fast, safe and convenient travel and more importantly, value for money in terms of greatly enhanced facilities and services,” said Franco.
The additional eight lanes, which are composed of four manual lanes, two Easytrip lanes and two mixed lanes, were built at a cost of P287 million.
“The expanded toll plaza assures that motorists will continue to experience speedy toll transactions at the NLEx especially during peak hours,” Franco said.