Seven submit bids for $407m Mactan-Cebu

Following several months of delays over renegotiating terms and extending deadlines, the PHP17.5 billion (€287 million; $407 million) Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) public-private partnership (PPP) in the Philippines has pushed its bidding process forward, and has received seven bids from all seven of the pre-qualified bidders.

When the seven bidders pre-qualified for the project in May, the government expected to have the final bids submitted by August 28, and to have selected the winner by October. However, according to domestic media reports, the process was delayed by several months at the last minute due to bidder concerns over the lack of clarity on several commercial issues.

By September, reports indicate that most of the commercial issues raised had been resolved, but the private sector bidders still requested more than a month to submit their final bids. The pre-qualified bidders 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.

PPP Centre executive director Cosette Canilao told Infrastructure Investor earlier that the revised deadline was November 15 for the bidders to submit their final proposals. However, last month the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) chose to extend the deadline for several weeks following the devastation of Typhoon Haiyan.

All seven pre-qualified bidders have now submitted their proposals, however, and the DOTC and the PPP Centre expect to open those bids today, according to a PPP Centre spokesman. The winner should be selected by January, he added.

The MCIA PPP will comprise the construction of a new world-class passenger terminal building in MCIA with a capacity of about 8 million passengers per year, and the operation of the old and new facilities. The MCIA is currently the country’s second-largest aviation hub, but has an annual capacity of only 4.5 million passengers. Traffic for 2012 was 6.7 million, and that number is expected to grow.