Megawide Construction Corporation and state-run Social Security System (SSS) are planning to jointly submit an unsolicited proposal to rehabilitate and operate the Philippines’ main gateway Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
This was announced by SSS chairman Amado Valdez on January 12 during the ceremonial signing of the state pension fund’s entry into Megawide as a 5.17% stockholder. SSS bought the shares of a controlling shareholder for around P1.32 billion in December last year as part of its plan to invest in infrastructure building.
SSS said it is also interested in increasing its shares in Megawide to acquire one seat on the Board of Directors.
Valdez said a technical working group has been formed to work out the details of the unsolicited proposal.
The planned partnership will be competing with a consortium also vying for the right to rehabilitate and operate congested NAIA.
This consortium, which will also submit an unsolicited proposal, is composed of a group of infrastructure and property development firms including Metro Pacific Investments Corporation, Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc., AC Infrastructure Holdings Corporation, Alliance Global Group Inc., Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corporation, Filinvest Development Corporation, and JG Summit Holdings Inc.
Meanwhile, Megawide-GMR Consortium, Megawide’s joint venture with India’s GMR Infrastructure Ltd., recently bagged the contract for the engineering, procurement, and construction of the Clark International Airport expansion project.
In 2014, the consortium also won the public-private partnership deal to develop and operate Mactan-Cebu International Airport, the country’s second busiest gateway.
Philippine Airlines has also revived an earlier proposal to build a new annex building at NAIA Terminal 2, where its flights are exclusively housed, in a bid to accommodate growing passenger volumes.
