GMA News Online, 5 April 2013

First Philippine Holdings Corp. (FPHC) has joined the bidding for the P17.5 billion Mactan-Cebu international airport project scheduled this year, the Lopez-led firm told the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) on Friday.

FPHC chief information officer Francis Giles Puno said they will participate “through a consortium, in the pre-qualification and bidding for the financing, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of the Mactan-Cebu international airport passenger terminal rehabilitation and expansion project.”

The bidding for the project — which involves the construction of a world-class passenger terminal building with a capacity of eight million passengers a year as well as the operation and maintenance of the old and new facilities — will be carried out by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC).

The Mactan-Cebu international airport is situated in a 797-hectare property and has a single 3,300 meter runway that is complemented by a full-length taxiway.

FPHC is a Lopez Group company managing businesses in energy, real estate, manufacturing, construction and energy services. Its subsidiaries and affiliates include First Gen Corp., Rockwell Land Corp., First Philippine Industrial Park, First Philippine Electric Corp., First Balfour Inc., ThermaPrime, and First Philippine Industrial Corp.

Other companies that have expressed in joining the bidding scheduled on April 22 include the tandem of San Miguel Corp. (SMC) and tobacco/airline magnate Lucio Tan, infrastructure conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) and JG Summit Holdings Inc. of taipan John L. Gokongwei Jr. that controls budget airline Cebu Air Inc. (Cebu Pacific) as well as publicly-listed Megawide Construction Corp. and infrastructure giant GMR Infrastructure Ltd. of India.

Aside from SMC and Tan’s MacroAsia Corp., other companies that have expressed interest in the project include Premier Airport Group care of retail magnate Henry Sy’s SM Investments Corp., Aboitiz Land, Inc., Filinvest Development Corp. of taipan Andrew Gotianun, and Prime Power Holdings Corp.

Aside from those that bought invitation documents, several companies including Seoul-based Samsung C&T Corp., Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB), auditing firm SG&V Co., Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Changi Airports International, and French-owned Aeroport de Lyon have inquired about the project. — KBK, GMA News