MNTC secures 15-year loan from insurance firms

Manuel V. Pangilinan-led highway operator Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC) has tapped a P1-billion long-term loan from two of the country’s leading insurance companies.

The deal, company officials said, exhibited the public’s confidence in the firm’s potential.

MNTC said it had signed a deal for an unsecured 15-year loan—the first of its kind the company had availed itself of in its history—with The Insular Life Assurance Company Ltd. (InsularLife) and Philippine American Life and General Insurance Company (PhilamLife).

Insular Investment & Trust Corp. is the loan lead arranger.

“What is remarkable is that the facility is unsecured—an unmistakable sign of the solid confidence of the financing community in MNTC’s stability even in the long term,” said Rodrigo E. Franco, MNTC president.

Ronnie Alcantara, president of Insular Investment & Trust Corp., said “the recently concluded P1-billion MNTC Term Loan Facility was a breakthrough deal as it established a 15-year benchmark for a private sector loan facility.”

Earlier this year, MNTC sealed a P10.6-billion unsecured loan with major local creditors, the proceeds of which were earmarked for debt refinancing and expansion. The loan signaled the complete transformation of MNTC’s financing regime from limited-recourse project finance to corporate finance.

The new loans extended by InsularLife and PhilamLife further extended the financing tenor.

MNTC will use part of the funds for the integration of the operations of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) and Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) following the signing of the latter’s concession agreement with the Bases Conversion and Development Authority.

The firm has also set in motion its NLEx Phase 2 expansion program involving the construction of vital linkages to major thoroughfares in Metro Manila.

One of the project is the NLEx Harbor Link, which links NLEx to Manila’s Port Area via another tollway connecting the NLEx main to the cloverleaf junction in Valenzuela City.

MNTC is a wholly owned unit of Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., the listed highway investment arm of the Pangilinan group.