The tollway unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. is eyeing a joint venture company with San Miguel Corp. for their expressway business, the company’s executive said.
“We are looking at other areas where we can cooperate and create a critical mass. For example in the case of tollways, if we manage to combine two tollways I think it will be a candidate to list in the stock exchange and become a major factor in energizing the stock exchange,” Manuel V. Pangilinan, chairman of Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. told reporters on the possibility of expanding its partnership with SMC president Ramon Ang.
“It will be a significant company and I hope we can persuade Ramon [Ang] to create a significant liquidity for that particular company,” he added.
Pangilinan said it is giving up at least 40 percent of their joint equity in the tollway company.
In August, MPTC and SMC signed a P72-billion deal to construct two expressways south of Metro Manila.
Under the memorandum of agreement, MPTC and SMC will jointly undertake the construction, operation and maintenance of the 87.96-kilometer Cavite-Batangas Expressway and Nasugbu-Bauan Expressway.
The MPTC Group has a total of 240.6 kilometers of existing expressways and 43.1 kilometers under construction, with a total investment of $3.06 billion.
It operates 105 kilometers of North Luzon Expressway, 94 kilometers of Subic Clark-Tarlac Expressway and 14 km. of Manila-Cavite Expressway. It also operates 8.5-km. Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway in Cebu.
SMCs expressways portfolio includes the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX), the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR), South Luzon Expressway (SLEX), the Skyway System, and the NAIA Expressway (NAIAX).
Ang, in his personal capacity, also invested in MPIC after it was delisted from the Philippine Stock Exchange.
MPIC vowed to list its other toll road, water and hospital subsidiaries in the succeeding years. Aside from these businesses, MPIC also has investments in power generation, agriculture, real estate, railway and logistics.
