Gov’t selling 20% stake in Tollways Management Corp.

North Luzon Expressway. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – The government is selling its minority stake in the Manny V. Pangilinan-led Tollways Management Corp. (TMC) for at least P2.578 billion.

In an invitation to bid published Monday, the Department of Finance-attached Privatization and Management Office (PMO) invited prospective bidders for the government-owned 76,000 common shares in TMC.

In a text message, Deputy Privatization Officer and PMO legal services officer-in-charge Toni Angeli V. Coo said the government’s stake in TMC was 20 percent.

Chief Privatization Officer Gerard L. Chan said in the published invitation to bid that “each duly qualified bidder shall be required to make its financial bid by indicating the cash amount that it offers to pay for the RoP [Republic of the Philippines] shares, which must not be less than the minimum total price.”

The PMO will “evaluate and rank each financial bid based on the bid offer of each bidder for the RoP shares,” Chan said.

“Subject to regulatory and other approvals, the subscription to primary common shares of TMC by the bidder with the highest financial bid shall be subject to the right of first refusal of the other existing stockholders of TMC,” Chan added.

Prospective bidders have until March 15 to submit mandatory documents and pay the participation fee worth P100,000, while the pre-bid conference will be on March 25.

The submission of bids among qualified bidders will be on April 5.

TMC, which operates and maintains toll roads, is a subsidiary of NLEx Corp., which is in turn a subsidiary of Pangilinan-led Metro Pacific Investments Corp.-owned Metro Pacific Tollways Corp.

NLEx Corp. is the builder-concessionaire and operator of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) as well as Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx). /kga