2 groups vie for Clark airport O&M deal

Only two groups, out of the nine or 10 that reportedly bought bidding documents, submitted bids yesterday for the operations and maintenance (O&M) of the Clark International Airport.

This is according to the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), which opened the bid documents packed in several boxes to determine their eligibility after the 1 p.m. deadline yesterday for the submission of the bids.

The winning bidder will be in charge of the long term O&M of the airport’s existing passenger terminal and the new terminal building that will open in 2020.

The first group that submitted its bid documents was the X-Droid Consortium.

X-Droid is composed of Indonesian state-owned airport operator Angkasa Pura II, port operator Globalport 900, Zest-O Corp. subsidiary and investment management firm Mazy’s Capital Inc. and energy service company Desco,Inc.

It was followed by the four-member North Luzon Airport Consortium, which includes a company linked to Singapore’s Changi Airport.

The Special Bids and Awards Committee will evaluate the eligibility documents, the government said.

The bidders will have to first pass the prequalification test, said Joshua Bingcang, chair of the committee.

Bingcang, who is also BCDA vice president for business development and operations, told reporters that the next stage would be the opening of the technical and financial proposals.

The DOTr and BCDA are targeting to award the O&M contract by December.

He said nine or 10 companies earlier bought bid documents. Since the prebid conference, Bingcang said certain rules were relaxed to make way for more bidders, including the extension of the deadline for submission of bids which was originally set for July. However, only two bidders showed up in the end.

These eased rules also included the Skytrax ranking requirement. Previously, an airport ran by a consortium member had to be in the list’s top 20. This was expanded to top 50.

Also, the airport operator’s equity requirement in the consortium was lowered to 15 percent from 20 percent, he said.

Bingcang said they wanted to award the contract soon so that the winner could coordinate with the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor and make the necessary adjustments related to equipment.

In this case, the EPC contractor is Megawide Construction Corp. and India’s GMR Infrastructure consortium.