The Philippines held its last overseas marketing exercise this year for about $20 billion worth of public private partnership (PPP) deals still in the pipeline.
The PPP Center Tuesday said in a statement that Philippine trade officials recently concluded a trip to Australia on Nov 27, visiting Melbourne and Sydney to encourage Australian business groups to invest in over 50 projects, like key railways and airports that have yet to be rolled out.
The PPP Center cited about 85 participants, which included investors, operators, contractors, developers, lenders and fund managers. The trip followed similar road shows in North America, Europe, Japan and Singapore.
The first leg of the government’s Australia investment road show was conducted in Melbourne where an estimated 40 participants from public and private sectors attended the PPP forum.
During the event, PPP Center Executive Director Cosette V. Canilao encouraged the participants to invest in the Philippines’ PPP projects and touted deals to be rolled out, including six provincial airports, one prison facility and a port modernization.
In Sydney, more than 45 participants attended the event and showed interest in the country’s PPP program, the PPP Center said.
Companies like Macquarie, Export Finance and Insurance Corporation, DLA Piper, Ashurst Australia, and Siemens attended the event, it added.
Previous PPP deals have been dominated by domestic players, in terms of participation, data from the PPP Center showed.
As noted, there have been eight deals awarded so far, the largest being the P65-billion Light Rail Transit Line 1 extension to Cavite province, which was won by a consortium led by Filipino conglomerates Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and Ayala Corp.
Two other tollroad deals in Metro Manila have been won by Ayala and San Miguel Corp., respectively.
Among the winners of the projects, only the P17.5-billion Mactan-Cebu International Airport, bagged by Filipino firm Megawide Construction Corp. and India’s GMR Infrastrucure, had any meaningful foreign participation.
“The Australia Investment RoadShow is part of the government’s effort to encourage more foreign players to invest in the country’s PPPs, especially now that there is a steady deal flow of investment opportunities and the country’s credit ratings are at an all-time high,” according to the PPP Center. Miguel R. Camus