The Department of Transportation (DOTr) on Thursday said San Miguel Corp. and India’s GMR Group have expressed interest in joining the bidding for the P171-billion contract to rehabilitate, optimize and maintain the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista said San Miguel Corp. and India’a GMR Group have bought the bid documents necessary for participation.
San Miguel Aerocity Inc. (SMAI) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of San Miguel Holdings Corp., the infrastructure arm of SMC currently building the P734 billion New Manila International Airport in Bulacan.
India’s GMR is the largest private airport operator in Asia and among the largest globally, handling passengers in excess of 100 million and a partner of Megawide Corp. at the Mactan Cebu International Airport project.
Cosette Canilao, president and chief executive of Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc., earlier said the Manila International Airport Consortium (MIAC) purchased bid documents for the NAIA rehab project.
Besides Aboitz Infra, the other members of the MIAC include AC Infrastructure Holdings Corporation, Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corporation, Alliance Global – Infracorp Development Inc., Filinvest Development Corporation and JG Summit Infrastructure Holdings Corporation.
DOTr and the Manila International Airport Authority on 23 August formally invited the various entities to participate in a single-stage competitive bidding process to rehabilitate-operate-expand-transfer the country’s premier airport in accordance with the Build-Operate-and-Transfer Law and its revised 2022 implementing rules and regulations.
The concession agreement and certain other documents providing background information on the project will be made available to the bidders through a virtual data room upon payment of a participation fee of P2.75 million or $50,000.
The draft concession agreement is set for 8 September while the pre-bid conference will be on 22 September. Bid submission is scheduled on 27 December this year.
Guidelines require bidders with net worth of at least P20 billion and post security of another P1.71 billion in standby letter of credit as part of their bid proposal.
“If the bidder is a consortium and any consortium member or such consortium members’ affiliates is an airline-related entity, then such consortium member cannot own or be proposed to own more than 33 percent interest in such consortium,” the agency said.
It said the bidder should have been an owner or concessionaire of an airport for which capital costs incurred was at least P10 billion and may have owned or had been airport concessionaire for less than 10 years.
As for O&M experience, bidders should have expertise and experience in undertaking the operation and maintenance of an international airport for at least three consecutive calendar years anytime within the eligible period and have handled annual passenger throughput of 25 million passengers per annum.
The DOTr and the MIAAl serve as project co-grantors of the 15-year concession with an option for a 10-year extension.
The agencies expect to award the contract by end-2023. The project aims to address longstanding issues at NAIA such as the inadequate capacity of passenger terminal buildings and restricted aircraft movement.
It also intends to increase the annual airport capacity from 35 million to at least 62 million passengers and raise air traffic movement from 40 to 48 per hour.
The project is also expected to improve the overall passenger experience and service quality to prevent long queues, lengthy waiting times and other passenger inconveniences.
