MPIC toll road unit cites need to raise P45B to shave debts

Billionaire Manuel Pangilinan’s Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) sees the need to conduct a fundraising activity before going public—now slated for 2025—to trim its debts.

Rogelio Singson, MPTC president and CEO, told reporters the company needed to raise funds equivalent to about 30 percent of its P150 billion worth of obligations.

“The general outlook, we need to raise money to reduce our debt level,” Singson said.

Given this scenario, the toll road arm of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) is looking at securing P45 billion in fresh funding.

Singson said they would want to raise half of it through initial public offering (IPO) and the rest via another fund-raising activity, details of which have yet to be determined.

The MPTC chief told reporters last week they were deferring the IPO to 2025, a year later than what was initially planned.

It was stalled to give leeway to a review of the potential joint venture with San Miguel Corp. (SMC). The idea was floated after both companies joined forces for a P72-billion expressway deal in Calabarzon.

The MPIC unit is currently expanding its toll road network as mobility resumed following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions.

MPT South Management Corp., an MPTC subsidiary, is spending about P12 billion in the next two years to complete the entire stretch of the 45-kilometer (km) Cavite-Laguna Expressway (Calax) and the 7.7-km Manila-Cavite Expressway (Cavitex) C-5 Link also by 2025.

Calax is a toll road linking Cavitex and South Luzon Expressway. Its project cost is estimated to rise to P28 billion from the original P21 billion due to delays in construction.

Cavitex C-5 Link connects motorists from Makati and Taguig to Parañaque, Las Piñas and Cavite.

In October, the entire segment of the 8-km North Luzon Expressway Connector road began operations. It is a public-private partnership project between the Department of Public Works and Highways and MPTC unit NLEx Corp., which seeks to reduce the travel time of cargo going to and from the north and south of Luzon.

This year, MPTC expects traffic volume and revenues to grow by 20 percent due to increasing demand and opening of more expressways. INQ