Seven pre-qualify for Philippines airport PPP

Just a few weeks after submitting their pre-qualifying offers for the PHP17.5 billion (€325 million; $425 million) Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) public-private partnership (PPP) in the Philippines, all seven domestic-international consortia have been accepted as pre-qualifying bidders.

The seven consortia comprise:

– Metro Pacific Investments Corporation and JG Summit Holdings, with Aeroports de Lyon;
– AAA Airport Partners, a joint venture of Ayala Land and Aboitiz Equity Ventures, with ADC & HAS Airports;

– Filinvest and Changi Airports Mena;

– San Miguel Corporation and Lucio Tan group, together with Incheon Airport International;

– First Philippine Airports, a consortium of Lopez-led First Philippine Holdings and Infratil Asia;

– Henry Sy’s Premier Airport Group and Zurich Airport International;

– Megawide Construction Corporation and GMR Infrastructure.

The Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC), the Philippine government department in charge of the project, said in a statement that seven was “a good number for ensuring optimal competition during the bid itself”.

According to the DOTC’s revised schedule, the seven consortia will have until August 28 to submit their bid proposals, and Infrastructure Investor understands the winner should be selected around October. Each consortium has at least one domestic and one international player – a requirement the DOTC put in place in order to allow Philippine operators to learn from their more experienced foreign counterparts, DOTC said earlier.

The MCIA is the country’s second-largest aviation hub, but its current terminal has an annual capacity of only 4.5 million passengers. Traffic for 2012 was 6.7 million, and that number is expected to grow.

The winner of the MCIA PPP will be expected to not only upgrade the current terminal, but add a new international passenger terminal with an 8 million annual capacity, according to the statement. After construction, the winner will also be awarded operating rights and will be remunerated via tariffs and commercial fees from the terminals, according to a DOTC spokeswoman.

“We are keen to find out which group will make the most advantageous offer to government. As we have said before, the more cooperation we have from the bidders, the sooner the public will enjoy the benefits of our projects,” another spokesman said in the statement.