Pangilinan pursuing LRT 1, toll road deals

MANILA, Philippines  —Billionaire Manuel Pangilinan is ramping up infrastructure play as he mulls over buying the stake of Ayala Corp. in Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 1 while advancing joint venture talks with tycoon Ramon Ang for a mega tollway company.

Pangilinan, in an interview with reporters on Monday evening, said consolidating ownership of LRT 1 would provide Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) flexibility in terms of operations.

“I think it is easier for us to move if it were majority-owned, fully under the control of MPIC. It just gives more ability to be able to do what we want to do,” said the MPIC chair and CEO.

READ: Ayala nears deal to exit LRT 1

MPIC and Ayala Corp. jointly own Light Rail Manila Corp., the private operator of LRT 1, with Sumitomo Corp. and Macquarie Group as minority shareholders. In 2014, the consortium bagged the 32-year concession to operate and maintain the 20.7-kilometer elevated railway.

Recently, Ayala chief finance officer Alberto de Larrazabal said they were expecting to sell their 35-percent stake in LRT 1 within the next four to six months, citing ongoing talks with potential buyers, including MPIC. The oldest conglomerate has been unloading assets to focus on core businesses instead.

With LRT 1 implementing fare hike, the Ayala official said the railway was more attractive now for buyers.

Tollway venture

Pangilinan also shared that discussions on the establishment of a tollway company with San Miguel Corp. were moving forward.

“At this stage, we’re at the point of exchanging relevant information between their tollways group and our tollways group to see what can be done, because these are inputs to eventual evaluation of each of our respective tollways,” he said.

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“We have a glimpse of some of the numbers about the tollways and we are all profitable,” he added.

The idea of a Pangilinan-Ang joint venture came about after two of the country’s biggest infrastructure players had inked partnership for the 88-km Cavite-Batangas Expressway and Nasugbu-Bauan Expressway.

The toll roads will traverse Silang, Amadeo, Tagaytay, Indang, Mendez and Alfonso in Cavite and will link motorists to Nasugbu and Bauan in Batangas.Both parties also earlier expressed interest to join forces to bid for the operations and maintenance contract of Metro Rail Transit Line 3.

The railway servicing the Edsa highway is being operated by Sobrepeña-led Metro Rail Transit Corp., which is set to transfer the asset to the government by 2025 with the expiration of the build-lease-transfer deal. INQ