San Miguel Corp. and Metro Pacific Investment Corp. said Monday they have agreed in principle to jointly undertake a new tollway project that will link Batangas and Cavite, two of the most populated and progressive provinces south of Metro Manila.
The two conglomerates respective infrastructure subsidiaries have separate but overlapping tollway proposals that would span the two provinces, each project expected to cost tens of billions of pesos to develop in full. The tollroads will essentially be competing for the same traffic flowing between Batangas and Cavite.
In separate disclosures to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the conglomerates confirmed a report by the Philippine Star quoting San Miguel president and chief executive officer Ramon Ang that they are already “tollways partners for a new Batangas and Cavite” project.
“We confirm that an agreement in principle has been reached for Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and San Miguel Corp., through their respective infrastructure subsidiaries, to jointly pursue the tollway project that will connect Cavite and Batangas,” Metro Pacific told the Philippine Stock Exchange.
“The management teams of both groups are currently discussing the terms and conditions of the definitive agreement implementing the same. We will file a disclosure with the Exchange upon the occurrence,” it added.
San Miguel for its part said that the corporations “have agreed to jointly develop a new project for the construction and operation of a tolway project that will link the provinces of Cavite and Batangas, and effectively merge the respective road projects of both corporations.”
San Miguel Holdings Corp., the infrastructure arm of San Miguel, has offered to build a P27 billion Cavite-Batangas Expressway while Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. has a pending 50-kilometer toll road for the two provinces that would cost over P25 billion.
