[ manilstandardtoday.com ] January 6, 2009
by Elaine Ramos Alanguilan
San Miguel Corp. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. submitted bids for the right to operate and manage the 93.77-kilometer Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, the Bases Conversion and Development Authority said Tuesday.
Rolando Manalo, acting head of the BCDA’s technical committee for the SCTEX auction, said only the two companies out of the original six offered bids on Monday for the 33-year contract to manage the toll road.
San Miguel tendered a bid through Northlink Toll Management Corp., a joint venture with STAR Tollway Corp., while Metro Pacific submitted its offer through Manila North Tollways Corp.
“We are now evaluating the documentation they have submitted with us. We are checking whether the documents submitted are correct and if they are compliant with the requirements so we can determine if they are eligible to bid,” said Manalo.
This will be the first tollway project that the San Miguel group will operate if it wins the contract. It earlier joined a consortium that would build the 88.5-kilometer Tarlac-La Union Expressway, a road network that aims to cut travel time to northern Luzon.
San Miguel agreed to acquire a significant stake in Private Infrastructure Development Corp., a consortium of construction companies behind the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Toll Expressway project.
Metro Pacific’s Manila North Tollways, meanwhile, operates and manages the North Luzon Expressway after buying out the stake of the Lopez group in the company.
San Miguel Group and the group of businessman Manuel Pangilinan, which includes Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. and Metro Pacific, earlier figured in a battle for control over Manila Electric Co., the country’s largest power distributor.
Manalo said BCDA was expected to give the notice of award on Jan. 22, 2010.
He said BCDA would open the financial bids after all the eligibility and technical documentation requirements were evaluated.
“The criteria is pass or fail. If none of the two bidding entities are not able to comply with the eligibility requirements, then we would have a failed bidding,” said Manalo.
Six groups originally signified interest to bid for the SCTEX contract, namely Manila North Tollways, STAR Tollway, lawyer Alvin Bugtas representing the Citra Group, San Miguel, Amicus Holdings Inc. and IL&FS Transportation Networks Ltd.
Under the SCTEX privatization program, the winning bidder will enter into a lease or concession agreement with BCDA to manage the road on “as is, where is” basis for a period of thirty-three-and-a-half years until 2043.
BCDA will receive a semi-annual concession fee from the winning bidder.
__________________________________________________________________________________
