Five groups cleared for airport auction

By Daphne J. Magturo, Reporter | Posted on September 20, 2015 11:02:00 PM

FIVE out of six prospective bidders were allowed to compete for P108.19 billion worth of public-private partnership (PPP) project contracts to develop, operate and maintain (O&M) five regional airports after one of them failed to meet documentary requirements.

The agency’s Web site bore a “disqualified” notice next to the name of Union Equities-ACSA Consortium — a tie-up of Union Equities, Inc. and Airports Company South Africa. No reason was cited for the disqualification.

Sought for comment, Union Equities Vice-President Leonardo B. Dayao said in a mobile phone reply on Sunday: “Union Equities was not pre-qualified due to some documentary deficiencies. We will submit an appeal for reconsideration while working on documentary compliance.”

General Bid Bulletin No. 10-2015, dated Sept. 18, read: “After a full and detailed evaluation of the qualification documents submitted to the Prequalification, Bids, and Awards Committee (PBAC)… the PBAC has rated the following as qualified,” namely: Filinvest-Jatco-Sojitz Consortium, GMR Infrastructure and Megawide Consortium, Maya Consortium, Philippine Airports Consortium and SMHC-IIAC Airports Consortium.

Filinvest-Jatco-Sojitz consists of Filinvest Land, Inc.; Japan Airport Terminal Corp. and Sojitz Corp.

GMR Infrastructure and Megawide Consortium is a partnership of listed builder Megawide Construction Corp. and Bangalore-based airport operator GMR Infrastructure Ltd. that vied against Filinvest Land and others to eventually bag the P17.52-billion Mactan-Cebu International Airport Passenger Terminal Building project on April 4 last year.

Maya Consortium is a tandem of Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc. and VINCI Airports, while the Philippine Airports Consortium is composed of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (that had also submitted a bid as part of a consortium for the Mactan-Cebu airport PPP deal) with a 60% stake and Philippines Airports Management Co. — a tie-up of Aeroports de Paris Management SA and TAV Havalimanlari Holdings AS — with the remaining 40% interest.

Lastly, SMHC-IIAC Airport Consortium is composed of San Miguel Holdings Corp. and Incheon International Airport Corp. that had also vied for the Mactan-Cebu airport PPP deal.

Contracts for the development and O&M of the regional airports will be auctioned off in two bundles. The first bundle is composed of the P20.26-billion Bacolod-Silay Airport and P30.40-billion Iloilo Airport, while the second package is made up of P40.57-billion Davao Airport, P14.62-billion Laguindingan Airport and P2.34-billion New Bohol Airport.

Winning concessionaires will handle the airports’ O&M for 30 years and will expand the facilities “as most of the airports are operating beyond their design capacity,” the Transportation department said last Aug. 16.

Opening of bids is scheduled in January 2016 and contracts will be awarded the following month.

Source: www.bworldonline.com