Friday, February 13, 2009 [ manilatimes.net ]
By Chino S. Leyco, Reporter
FIRST Philippine Infrastructure Inc. said on Thursday that it has already set its three-year capital expenditure program for the integrated rail and tollway project that would connect the North and South Luzon Expressways.
Manuel Pangilinan, First Infrastructure chairman, said capital spending for the project would be close to P20 billion, which will spread for the next three years.
State-owned Philippine National Railways (PNR) and First Infrastructure earlier agreed to jointly conduct a pre-feasibility study for an alternative facility that will connect the two Expressways.
Initial discussions are focused on the development of an 18-kilometer integrated rail and tollroad project. This will have a combined at-grade and elevated roadways over the existing PNR line right-of-way in Metro Manila.
“It’s [going to] be a long term project. Assuming that our stand to fulfill is viable, the project will be rolled out either two years, or construction two and a half years to three years,” Pangilinan told reporters.
He added that the P20 billion is a “soft number but then again, it is something that we are serious.”
Pangilinan said the possible venture with PNR is part of MPIC’s focus on infrastructure to help ease the congestion in the Greater Metro Manila transportation network.
Last year, First Infrastructure announced that its major shareholders, First Philippine Holdings Corp. and Benpres Holdings Corp., both of the Lopez group, have decided to sell their respective stakes in the toll road business to MPIC.
MPIC acquired the two Lopez companies’ First Infrastructure stakes for P12.2 billion, or P2.467 per share. This is lower than the company’s close during that day of P7.50 a piece.
The offer represented a 99.84-percent ownership in First Infrastructure. First Holdings and Benpres each had a 51-percent and a 49-percent interest, respectively, in First Infrastructure, formerly City Resources Corp. The remaining 0.16-percent stake is publicly held.
