Megawide groups inks P2.9-B loan from gov’t banks for orthopedic hospital PPP

MANILA, Philippines—A consortium led by the Megawide engineering and construction group has inked a P2.9 billion loan deal with state-controlled banks to build a new 700-bed Philippine Orthopedic Hospital under the public-private partnership framework.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday, Megawide Construction Corp. said that in connection with the modernization of the Philippine Orthopedic Center project, Megawide World Citi Consortium Inc. had entered into an omnibus loan and security agreement with Land Bank of the Philippines, Land Bank trust banking group and the 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 on Aurora Boulevard.

The P5.7-billion build-operate-transfer hospital project was bagged by Megawide-World Citi Consortium under the PPP framework with the Department of Health as the implementing agency. The new hospital will be located within the National Kidney and Transplant Institute compound on East Avenue, Quezon City. The consortium will design, build, finance, operate and maintain the facility until the end of the 25-year concession period, and then transfer the hospital to the DOH.

On the loan facility signed 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.