Changi-JG-FDC group bags Clark Airport O&M contract

The consortium of Singapore’s Changi Airport and local conglomerates JG Summit Holdings Inc. and Filinvest Development Corp. has been declared the winner of the long-term operations and maintenance of Clark International Airport in Pampanga.

The Bases Conversion and Development Authority, the implementing agency, announced the award yesterday to the venture known as North Luzon Airport Consortium.

The proposal was reviewed by the Investment Coordination Committee of the National Economic and Development Authority, which confirmed the rate of return of the project as required for projects with only one qualified bidder.

North Luzon Airport was the only bidder left in the running after its sole rival, X-Droid Consortium, which included Indonesia’s Angkasa Pura 2, was disqualified when bids were opened last month.

North Luzon Airport offered a sharing arrangement where the government would get an 18.25 percent share of gross revenue through the 25-year concession period. The floor amount was earlier set at 10 percent.

“All the requirements and provisions in the 25-year concession will protect not only the interest of the present administration but also future administrations from undue and contingent risks and liabilities,” the BCDA said in a statement.

The group hurdled the review held earlier by the Investment Coordination Committee of the National Economic and Development Authority.

JG Summit, owned by the Gokongwei family, has businesses in property, airlines, food and beverage, energy and banking. Filinvest, owned by the Gotianuns, is into property development, power, banking and sugar production.

Also part of the consortium is Philippine Airport Ground Support Solutions, owned by businessman Jefferson G. Cheng.

Clark Airport has seen passenger numbers surge following a state-sponsored initiative to encourage airlines to relocate part of their operations to the Pampanga gateway.

Its development forms part of the government’s goal to decongest Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport, which is operating well beyond its design capacity.

The expansion of Clark Airport is underway, with the Megawide Construction Corp. and GMR Infrastructure consortium building a new passenger terminal that will increase its current capacity of four million passengers yearly to 12 million passengers by 2020.

The Clark Airport deal is the sole project in the Public- Private Partnership pipeline to be awarded in 2018, PPP Center officials said on Thursday.

It is also the first of the administration’s hybrid PPPs, which separates the construction and O&M components.