Megawide Construction Corp. said Wednesday it agreed to exchange its remaining stake in Aboitiz GMR Megawide Cebu Airport Corp. (AGMCAC) for P7.76 billion in favor of Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc. (AIC).
The company said the transaction to exchange its remaining 33 and 1/3 percent, plus one share would reduce its liabilities and improve its liquidity position, boosting its current ratio from 1.29x to 1.54x.
“As an infrastructure innovator, the completion of the airport transaction facilitates our natural progression into property development and allows us to focus on our precast and construction solutions [PCS] unit — which serves as our unique competitive advantage against other industry players—and our other infrastructure projects, including the Paranaque Integrated Terminal Exchange (PITX). At the same time, this strengthens our balance sheet and forms part of our medium-term financial management program,” Megawide chairman and chief executive Edgar Saavedra said.
After the airport deal, the company’s consolidated debt-to-equity improved to 1.9x from a high of 2.6x prior to the transaction.
Megawide also used the proceeds to acquire PH1 World Developers Inc. in July 2023, as a means to forward-integrate into more scalable businesses, targeting largely the resilient, end-user segment of the housing market.
It said the transaction was in line with the share subscription and transfer agreement among Megawide, GMR Airports International BV and AIC, which includes the issuance of exchangeable notes from both Megawide and GAIBV for the remaining 66 and 2/3 percent plus one share of AGMCAC’s outstanding capital stock amounting to P15.5 billion.
Megawide is an active infrastructure partner of the Philippine government. Apart from MCIA and PITX, the company delivered 10,000 classrooms for the Department of Education’s PPP for School Infrastructure Project, completed the design and construction of the new Clark International Airport Passenger Terminal Building, and is constructing Malolos-Clark Railway Package 1 and Metro Manila Subway Project Contract Package 104.
