Conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. may sell at least 20 percent of its equity in the new tollway unit that will operate the Cavite Laguna Expressway project.
“If anything, minimum, I suppose, is about 20 percent,” MPIC chairman Manuel Pangilinan said, when asked if the company was willing to share stake in the unit.
MPCala Holdings Inc., a unit of MPIC, which won the P35.4-billion 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 MPCala had until June 29 to comply with all the requirements in the notice of award. Contract signing is scheduled on June 29.
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.
The Public Works Department set a P20.105-billion minimum premium for the project, the offer of OIDI during the first attempt to bid out the project.
President Benigno Aquino III ordered a rebidding of the project, after the department disqualified OIDI on technicality, despite submitting the highest bid.
Ayala Corp. and Aboitiz Group, which emerged as the second highest bidder in the first auction, did not participate in the second bidding.
Other DPWH projects under PPP that had been awarded were the P15.5-billion NAIA Expressway and the P1.96-billion Daang Hari-SLEX Link.
The government is also bidding out the P122.8-billion Laguna Lakeshore Expressway Dike project, which aims to provide a high-standard highway to speed up traffic between the southern part of Metro Manila and Laguna, as well as a dike that would mitigate flooding in the western coastal communities along Laguna Lake.
