The Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Center welcomes Philippine Stock Exchange’s (PSE) initiative to have separate listing rules for companies undertaking PPP projects.
“PPP Center is taking a long-term view in the financing of its projects and have endeavored to work with PSE and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in setting up the legal and regulatory framework for accessing the capital markets for PPPs”, Executive Director Andre C. Palacios said.
“As PPP project cost is increasing in size and magnitude, it is important to plan ahead and offer various alternatives of financing or investing in PPP projects or PPP companies. We look positively on PSE’s progressive action in this aspect and look forward to more collaboration in the future”, he added.
This new development is the product of several roundtable discussions and consultations with public and private stakeholders on developing the capital markets for PPPs initiated by the PPP Center, in collaboration with the PSE, SEC, the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
According to the recently released draft supplemental listing and disclosure rules applicable to a company engaged in PPP projects under Republic Act No. 6957 as amended, the PSE will, among others, allow the listing of a PPP company without compliance to the three-year track record and operating history requirements under the existing PSE Listing Rules. The listing of PPP companies is an alternative option for financing PPP projects.
For its part, the PPP Center is in the process of finalizing a policy circular on refinancing for PPPs. Said policy circular aims to institute a preliminary framework to ensure the availability of long-term refinancing options to the private sector while ensuring that the Government and the private sector’s contractual commitments and undertakings with regard to the PPP project are not impaired. This will be presented to the PPP Governing Board for its approval at its next meeting.
Currently, the PPP Center is keen on projects in the pipeline now in advanced stages of procurement. This includes the bid submission for the Regional Prisons Project on August 25, the Civil Registry System Information Technology Phase II Project on June 10, and the submission of Pre-qualification documents for LRT Line 6 on September 9.
Under the current PPP pipeline, there are currently 53 projects in various stages of development with an estimated worth USD 34 billion. Twelve (12) projects have already been awarded while 15 PPP projects are currently under different stages of the bidding process. Of the twelve awarded projects, three projects are already completed: the Muntinlupa-Cavite Expressway, PPPs for School Infrastructure Project Phase 1 and the Automatic Fare Collection System now known as the beep card.
