INFRASTRUCTURE conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. is scouting for
shares up for sale in toll roads in Indonesia and Malaysia to further expand its footprint in Southeast Asia.
Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. President Rodrigo E. Franco said his group is interested in buying into existing expressway companies in the two Asean countries, as this could be a launch pad for the Filipino company to build and operate new toll roads in Indonesia and Malaysia.
“We are looking at buying into existing operators,” he said. “That’s always been our initial mode of entry, we’d like to go into an existing operations, and then from there, next stage is looking at new projects.” The company’s interest comes even after its failed negotiations with a tollways operator in Malaysia.
“We are interested in Malaysia because it has a culture of toll payments, which means people are amenable to paying toll to get quality infrastructure. They also have more than 30 toll-road concessions —that’s how vast their toll roads are,” Franco said.
Malaysian expressways are also interconnected, and the country has the highest car-ownership ratio in the Asean, excluding for Singapore.
“It’s a country with a high motorization and, at the same time, there is a greater experience in paying toll to enjoy the benefits of infrastructure,” Franco explained.
Indonesia, he said, also has high car sales. The company is looking at several projects on the island of Java. “We have prospects on Indonesia,” he said. “Our focus will be on the island of Java, where Jakarta is.”
Franco added: “So, hopefully, once we have those two countries, we will have a Pan-Asean presence.”
Currently, the company has significant interests in toll-road operators in Thailand and Indonesia.
Metro Pacific Tollways is the country’s largest toll-road operator in the Philippines. Its portfolio of expressways include the North Luzon, Subic-Clark-Tarlac, Manila-Cavite Toll, the future Cavite-Laguna and the Cebu-Cordova Link expressways.