SMC keen on winning more airport contracts

San Miguel Corp.(SMC) is keen on bidding for provincial airport public private partnership (PPP) contracts to be auctioned by the government, company president Ramon S. Ang said, signaling the conglomerate’s intention to continue growing its transport infrastructure portfolio.

Ang said in a text message Friday that SMC had bought bid documents for the auction, which so far includes airport deals in Iloilo, Bacolod-Silay, Davao, Laguindingan and Bohol, to be packaged into two separate bundles.

SMC, which has diversified its assets to include oil refining and tollroads, already operates the Godofredo P. Ramos Airport, better known as the Boracay Airport, which is the closest gateway to Boracay Island, one of the Philippines’ most popular tourist destinations.

SMC partnered with South Korea’s Incheon International Airport in 2013 for the P17.5-billion Mactan Cebu International Airport PPP, although the tandem lost to a consortium led by Megawide Construction Corp. and India’s GMR Infrastructure.

Gokongwei-led JG Summit Holdings Inc. and Megawide also acquired bid documents for the provincial airport auction, the PPP Center and their respective officials confirmed.

Manuel V. Pangilinan-led Metro Pacific Investments Corp. is in separate talks with JG Summit to revive a partnership from the Cebu airport PPP deal to bid for the five airport projects, a stock exchange filing showed on Friday.

The PPP Center on Friday confirmed that at least three groups had so far acquired bid documents for the provincial airport PPP, which was rolled out earlier this month.

The Department of Transportation and Communications is seeking private sector support to upgrade and operate the five air gateways, which have been selected for their growing tourism and business prospects. Some of the deals would also require significant capital spending, the DOTC noted.

The DOTC said Davao Airport, which handled 2.76 million passengers in 2013, would require the largest capital spending with a total development cost of P40.57 billion.

Significant spending swould also be required for Iloilo (P30.4 billion) and Bacolod (P20.3 billion).

In its instructions to bidders, the DOTC included a revised timeline, with the submission of pre-qualification documents now set on May 18 this year.

It has yet to specify a bid submission date.

However, the instructions showed that the project was expected to be awarded by March 2016, a few months before President Aquino’s term ends by the middle of that year.