Gov’t defers sale of toll firm stake

The government has deferred the sale of its stake in Manny V. Pangilinan-led Tollways Management Corp. (TMC) while Metro Manila undergoes a one-month “community quarantine” to prevent the spread of COVID-19 disease.

General Negotiation Bulletin No. 2 issued by Chief Privatization Officer Gerard Chan

on March 13 “suspended, until further notice” the planned negotiated sale of the government’s 76,000 common shares in TMC.

Chan said the suspension was in line with the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease’s Resolution No. 11 approved by President Duterte, which placed the National Capital Region (NCR) under community quarantine from March 15 to April 14.

The Privatization and Management Office (PMO) was supposed to accept by March 20 offers to buy the government’s 20-percent stake in the tollway firm at a minimum base price of P2.578 billion.

Last year, the PMO was unable to dispose of the government’s TMC shares as “no bidder showed up.”

Prospective offerors had until Feb. 21 to accomplish and submit a letter of intent and a duly notarized confidentiality agreement, and also pay a nonrefundable participation fee of P50,000 to the Department of Finance-attached PMO.

The highest offeror shall be “subject to a right of first refusal process by the existing stockholders of TMC,” according to the PMO.

TMC was a subsidiary of NLEx Corp., which was also a subsidiary of Pangilinan-led Metro Pacific Investments Corp.-owned Metro Pacific Tollways Corp.

NLEx Corp. was the builder-concessionaire as well as operator of both North Luzon Expressway and Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway. INQ