Missing affidavit

SM Prime Holdings Inc. president Hans Sy, the designated representative to the SM group’s public-private partnership (PPP) initiatives, did not realize that a lot of manual labor was required to participate in these auctions.

During the submission of the prequalification requirements for the P17-billion Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) terminal project, Sy had to personally sign each page of the voluminous documents required by the PPP Center. It took him two hours to finish. “I didn’t realize it’s that hard,” Sy told Biz Buzz.

“Airport and retail always go together,” Sy said, when asked why SM is joining the MCIA race. The group has tapped Flughafen Zurich AG as its partner for this project.

But some said Sy’s two-hour labor might have been all for naught as the SM consortium failed to submit during Monday’s prequalification a document called “QD17”—a paper that states the design and engineering contractor’s willingness to participate in, and provide capacity to undertake the requirements of the project. It was the only one among the seven MCIA bidders that failed to submit this document.

Lucky for the Sys, the PPP Center agrees that the QD17 affidavit was not necessary in the case of the SM group. Cosette Canilao, PPP executive director, clarified that the QD17 was a requirement only for those bidding participants who would tap subcontractors. In this case, the entity that attests to such wiliness and capability—Zurich—is already part of the consortium. As such, this would not  be a stumbling block to the SM group’s participation. Otherwise, expect a fuming Hans Sy to castigate SM’s legal staff for the “omission.”

Does it mean that the SM-Zurich consortium is looking at other airport projects? Not necessarily, Sy said. In this case, SM saw an opportunity because MCIA is an important gateway. Doris C. Dumlao

New gaming play

After Bloomberry Resorts and Melco Crown, another pure gaming play is about to go to the market. Travellers International, developer and operator of Resorts World Manila—and a partnership between Alliance Global Group Inc. and the Genting Group of Malaysia—will tap five international houses to arrange an IPO worth about $500 million.

According to the International Financing Review, the five underwriters are UBS, BoFA Merrill Lynch, CIMB, Maybank and Religare Capital. The offering is targeted sometime in the third quarter of this year.

After Resorts World Manila, Travellers will next work on its new entertainment hub, the $1.1-billion Resorts World Bayshore in Pagcor City—“the last but not the least” to set up shop in the country’s future Las Vegas-like cluster. Doris C. Dumlao

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