The tollway unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. plans to form a joint venture company with San Miguel Corp. to build expressways, a top executive said Tuesday.
“We are looking at other areas where we can cooperate and create a critical mass. For example in the case of tollways, if we manage to combine two tollways, I think it will be a candidate to list in the stock exchange and become a major factor in energizing the stock exchange,” Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. chairman Manuel Pangilinan told reporters when asked about the possibility of expanding his partnership with SMC president Ramon Ang.
“It will be a significant company, and I hope we can persuade Ramon [Ang] to create a significant liquidity for that particular company,” he said.
Pangilinan said it would give up at least 40 percent of equity in the new tollway company.
MPTC and SMC signed in August a P72-billion deal to construct two expressways south of Metro Manila.
Under the memorandum of agreement, MPTC and SMC will jointly undertake the construction, operation and maintenance of the 87.96-kilometer Cavite-Batangas Expressway and Nasugbu-Bauan Expressway.
The MPTC Group has 240.6 kilometers of existing expressways and 43.1 kilometers under construction, with a total investment of $3.06 billion.
It operates 105 kilometers of North Luzon Expressway, 94 km. of Subic Clark-Tarlac Expressway and 14 km. of Manila-Cavite Expressway. It also operates the 8.5-km. Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway in Cebu.
SMC’s expressways includes the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX), the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR), South Luzon Expressway (SLEX), the Skyway System and the NAIA Expressway (NAIAX).
Ang, in his personal capacity, also invested in MPIC after it was delisted from the Philippine Stock Exchange.
MPIC vowed to list its other toll road, water and hospital subsidiaries in the succeeding years. Aside from these businesses, MPIC also has investments in power generation, agriculture, real estate, railway and logistics.