Richmond Mercurio | The Philippine Star | November 20, 2019
Manila, Phillipines — Engineering and infrastructure conglomerate Megawide Construction Corp. is seeking a standard set of terms for airport projects from the government as it looks to participate in the development of more local and international gateways in the country.
“There are several unsolicited proposals on the table, but there’s a lot of back and forth happening between the proponents and the government,” Megawide chief business development officer Jaime Raphael Feliciano said.
“So what we’re waiting for is a standardized sort of terms that we can use because each proponent will submit a different set of terms. What the government does is they typically give feedback for each proponent, but there’s no standard set of terms that can be used so it would be good for us to wait for those standardized terms so we can determine whether we can participate or not,” he said.
Megawide and partner GMR Infrastructure of India, through GMR Megawide Cebu Airport Corp., are the private companies that manage the terminal operations and other related areas of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport.
The tandem is also undertaking construction of the new passenger terminal at Clark International Airport.
Megawide and GMR have also previously submitted an unsolicited proposal to upgrade and rehabilitate the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
At present, the planned development of Sangley International Airport in Cavite is one of the airport projects which Megawide is seriously looking into.
“In the airport sector, our company is interested in looking at these projects, but we’re waiting for the final terms that will be set by the DOTr (Department of Transportation) and the BBB group,” GMR-Megawide president Louie Ferrer said regarding Megawide’s intention to undertake more airport projects.
“In terms of capability and experience, it’s already our fifth year in Mactan-Cebu International Airport. We’ve increased passenger traffic from 6.5 million and this year we’re targeting 13 million passengers. So in most airport requirements we believe we can qualify already,” he said.
Aside from airports, Megawide is also keen on joining more railway projects.
“We want to participate in more rail projects in construction. We see a lot of rail projects coming out,” Megawide chairman and chief executive officer Edgar Saavedra said.
Megawide is bullish on its prospects next year, eyeing to rebound from an expected lower earnings by year-end.
Megawide officials have said that the company is likely to fall short of its earnings target this year. The company was originally looking at a flat consolidated net income of P1.89 billion this year.
“The coming year will be a lot stronger due to the catch up in construction revenues, normalizing airport operations, and full commercial potential of PITX coming into play. Finance costs are also expected to taper off with loan take outs and possible refinancing at lower interest rates,” Saavedra said.