SMIC confident in smart card system bid

The SM Group of billionaire Henry Sy said it was still in the running for the contract to operate a smart card system for railways in Metro Manila, even after a rival group submitted a slightly higher offer price during the bidding earlier this week.

SM Investments vice chair Teresita Sy-Coson said in an interview that the group had the most advantageous financial offer while a separate statement issued by the company pointed to potential synergies from its status as the Philippines’ dominant retail chain.

The perceived frontrunner for the deal, also known as the P1.72-billion automated fare collection system public private partnership project, is a consortium between Ayala Corp. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp.

Ayala-Metro Pacific, via AF Consortium, offered  a premium of P1,088,103,900, which was  0.01 percent higher than the P1.088 billion offered by the SM Consortium,  as revealed during the opening of financial proposals by the transportation department Monday.

A third group, Comworks-Berjaya, had sought an effective subsidy of P2.05 billion. The bid proposals are still subject to review, which would be concluded just before Christmas, the transportation department said.

Sy-Coson said Wednesday night the race was far from over as the SM Consortium’s P1.088 billion offer was to be paid to the government upfront, upon signing of the 10-year concession agreement.

“Our condition is that upon signing, we give that amount,” Sy said.

“It [the evaluation] is not yet done and our people are confident we may win,” she added.

Ayala and Metro Pacific on Monday claimed an early victory, also saying they were confident in their proposal, which one of their officials said was akin to the Octopus smart card system in Hong Kong.

The project’s parameters allow the amount, which comes on top of the cost to develop the project, to be paid on a staggered basis over the entire concession period, but Sy said SM’s offer was for a single lump sum payment. Miguel R. Camus