[ manilastandardtoday.com ] April 21, 2008
By Jenniffer B. Austria
DMCI Holdings Inc. plans to sell P1.5 billion worth of idle assets to partially finance its equity contribution in the proposed P15-billion Tarlac-La Union Toll Expressway.
DMCI Holdings president Isidro Consunji told reporters that the company would start selling idle assets next month to raise funds for the project.
Consunji did not identify the assets up for sale. DMCI Holdings is largely into coal mining, infrastructure, property and construction.
It has a 34 percent equity in Private Infrastructure Development Corp., which won the concession to construct and operate the 88.58-kilometer expressway.
Consunji said it would be the first time that an all-Filipino consortium would implement a huge infrastructure project.
Lopez-owned First Balfour Inc. owns a 34 percent stake in Private Infrastructure. The other six owners, namely EEI Corp., R.D. Policarpio and Co. Inc., D.M. Wenceslao and Associates Inc., J.V. Angeles Construction, J.E. Manalo and Co. Inc., New Kanlaon Construction Inc. and Rockford Development, will have equity of between 2 and 6 percent each.
The project involves the construction of an 88.58-kilometer, 2-lane paved expressway from La Paz, Tarlac to Rosario, La Union. It will have eight interchanges in Victoria, Gerona, Paniqui, Moncada, Carmen, Urdaneta, Pozzorubio and Rosario.
The project is expected to reduce travel time from Manila to Baguio from six hours to just three to four hours.
Travel time from Tarlac to La Union is 3.1 hours for the 94.4-kilometer road. With the proposed expressway, travel time will be reduced to just 1.1 hours or a time saving of two hours.
Construction work will start in September. The company hopes to start operating the Tarlac-to-Carmen route on January 2010 and Carmen-to-Urdaneta the following year. The final leg of the project, which stretches from Urdaneta to Rosario, will be completed by March 2013.
The government plans to provide P2.91 billion in subsidy, excluding P800 million for acquisition of right-of-way lands.
The consortium plans to infuse an equity of P3.68 billion and raise the balance of P8.5 billion through borrowings.
Private Infrastructure has tapped BDO Capital and Investment Corp. as financial adviser for the fund-raising activity.
In 2000, the Public Works and Highways Department proposed the North Luzon Expressway project phase (Tarlac to Rosario, La Union) from 2003 to 2006. But due to budgetary constraints, the department failed to push through with the project.
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