Metro Pacific sets aside P6B in ’14 for toll roads

Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. is investing about P6 billion in 2014 as it expects to begin construction of a new section of a toll road that will link Manila’s harbor area with North Luzon Expressway, a company official said.

Metro Pacific Tollways chief financial officer Christopher Lizo said the company expected to complete in 2014 the company’s so-called segment 9, McArthur Highway to Nlex, the 84-kilometer toll road that the company operates.

The bigger spending would go to the start of segment 10, which will connect segment 9 to Manila’s Port area, thus, allowing the company to benefit from the growth in the shipping and cargo industry.

Metro Pacific Tollways, a subsidiary of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., has allocated over P41 billion to expand its toll road portfolio in five years, previous stock exchange filings in the Philippines and Hong Kong showed.

The single-biggest component of this plan would be to build a P23-billion “connector” road that would link Nlex to South Luzon Expressway, which is controlled by rival San Miguel Corp. and the Citra Group of Indonesia.

The connector road, the final structure of which has yet to be approved by the government, will cut travel time between the northern and southern expressways to about 20 minutes from over an hour, Metro Pacific Tollways said.

Metro Pacific Tollways, which reported a 27-percent increase in core earnings to P1 billion in the first half of 2013, said the spending plan would be supported by a combination of internal cash and debt.

The company’s expansion plans come even as it faces delays in other areas.

Metro Pacific Tollways, for example, remains in long-running discussions with the government for the turnover of the 93.7-km Subic Clark Tarlac Expressway to the toll road operator.

Lizo noted that the five-year expansion budget involves extending the Manila Cavite Expressway (Cavitex) to C-5 and Noveleta in Cavite, company president Ramoncito Fernandez said.

The toll road is the newest to be managed by Metro Pacific Tollways and currently runs a 14-kilometer length between Parañaque in Metro Manila to Kawit, Cavite.

It is a key part of the company’s plan to expand its presence south of Metro Manila, as it will also connect to the P35.4-billion Cavite Laguna expressway a 47-kilometer toll road that Metro Pacific Tollways is seeking to build and operate.