SAN MIGUEL CORP. HAS SIGNED A NONBINDING deal to acquire a ?significant? stake in a private sector consortium that owns the P15.36-billion Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Toll Expressway project.

?This is in line with our diversification plans and we?re happy to be a catalyst for the infrastructure needs of the country,? San Miguel president Ramon Ang told the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday.

San Miguel did not say how large a stake it would acquire in the consortium, called Private Infrastructure Development Corp. (PIDC), although it was earlier reported that it wanted a majority control. Ang clarified that the size of the stake was still ?under negotiations.?

?The north to central Luzon stretch is a potentially dynamic industrial corridor, and the proposed expressway will make it easier and more cost-effective to move goods and people from one point of Luzon to another. As a food and beverage conglomerate with one of the most developed distribution networks in the country, we have a strong interest in making it happen,? Ang said.

The 88-kilometer expressway project will extend from La Paz, Tarlac (the end of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway) to Rosario, La Union. Once completed, it will cut by half the present travel time from Manila to Baguio.

The three-phase project, which is being undertaken via a build-operate-transfer contract between the Department of Public Works and Highways and PIDC, is expected to be completed by 2013, although the first two sections are expected to be finished by May 2010 and January 2011, respectively.

The estimated project cost of P15.36 billion includes a P2.9-billion subsidy from the government for certain portions of the expressway. It will initially have two lanes, but two more will be added once traffic volume reaches 25,000 vehicles a day, based on the original BOT plan.

PIDC is controlled by 10 construction companies including DM Consunji Inc. and the Lopez-owned First Balfour. The plan was originally for DMCI to take in a new partner and buy the other contractors out. Metro Pacific Investment Corp. also has an option to take over the 10-percent stake held by the Lopezes as part of the deal when it took over the latter?s North Luzon Expressway project, although it has yet to exercise this option.

But because the agreement signed by San Miguel with the Consunji-led consortium remains nonbinding at this point, MPIC remains in the picture as the infrastructure holding company led by Manuel V. Pangilinan is still in talks for the acquisition of a stake in this expressway.

San Miguel and PIDC agreed to execute and finalize a definitive agreement which shall be subject to government approval, the disclosure said.

Both San Miguel and Metro Pacific have expressed interest in acquiring a stake in the SCTEX project of the Bases Conversion Development Authority.

Also, San Miguel affirmed in a recent disclosure that it was interested in the operations of California-based Dole Food Co. in the Philippines and in the region.