Megawide signs P2.9-B loan deal for hospital project

A consortium led by Megawide engineering and construction group has signed a P2.9-billion loan deal with state-controlled banks to build a new 700-bed Philippine Orthopedic hospital under the public-private partnership (PPP) framework.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange Friday, Megawide Construction Corp. said that in connection with the modernization of the Philippine Orthopedic Center project, Megawide World Citi Consortium Inc. has entered into an omnibus loan and security agreement with Land Bank of the Philippines, its trust banking group and Development Bank of the Philippines. Megawide acted as guarantor for this loan.

Megaworld-World Citi is a partnership with World Citi, operator of the 276-bed tertiary hospital World Citi Medical Center in Aurora Boulevard.

The P5.7-billion build-operate-transfer (BOT) hospital project was bagged by Megawide-World Citi Consortium under the PPP scheme with the Department of Health (DOH) as the implementing agency. The project involves the construction of a super-specialty tertiary orthopedic hospital to be located within the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) compound along East Avenue, Quezon City.

The old orthopedic center in Banawe Ave., Quezon City, also has 700 rooms but only 300 rooms are fit for hospital use. Under the contract, the consortium will design, build, finance, operate and maintain the facility until the end of the concession period and then transfer the hospital to the DOH after 25 years.

On the loan facility with the two government banks, Megawide chief finance officer Oliver Tan said: “It’s 12 years [in] tenor with interest to be set on drawdown date.”

Tan said the consortium was targeting to complete the 700-bed hospital by the first quarter of 2017. Doris C. Dumlao