THE tollways arm of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. will soon take over the operations of Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx), after the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) failed to muster bids for the price challenge of the highway’s multibillion-peso operations contract.
“No one challenged the existing offer during the auction on Friday. This means we could move on with the contract, and award it soon,” BCDA President Arnel Paciano D. Casanova said in a telephone interview.
San Miguel Corp., which operates the South Luzon Expressway, earlier expressed interest to bid for the deal. It, however, backed out of Friday’s auction.
Since no one challenged the P3.5-billion offer of the tollroad business of tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan, the contract will be awarded to it soon.
“We expect that by February 4, we could submit to the BCDA board the finalized contract,” Casanova said.
Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC) President Rodrigo E. Franco separately said his office expects the deal’s awarding to take place this week.
“After [receipt of the] notice of award, we will negotiate the amendments to the business and operating agreement. Then we execute the revised agreement and the supplemental toll-operations agreement. Hopefully, we will be able to take over by end of February or March at the latest,” he told the BusinessMirror.
Franco explained that the amendments involve “some updating of technical aspects—for example, the maintenance—since it is a 2011 program.”
“We need to update to current conditions,” he said.
President Aquino late last year directed the state-run company to subject the offer of MNTC to a price challenge “in the interest of transparency and for competition.”
The tollroad operator won the contract in 2011, proposing a 50- percent revenue-sharing scheme, which the Department of Finance endorsed to President Aquino for approval last year.
In November 2012 MNTC raised the BCDA’s revenue share to P90 billion, from the original proposal of P64 billion.
MNTC also provided a longer period—from the earlier endpoint of 2016 to the new schedule of 2019—within which the company would subsidize payment of the BCDA’s existing P31-billion debt to the Japan International Cooperation Agency. The loan, which was used to build the SCTEx, will mature in 2041.
The 94-kilometer expressway allows for the merging of Clark and Subic Bay free-port zones into a single facility, resulting in the convergence of land-, air- and sea-based transport.
As of end-November 2014, the number of vehicles that used the tollroad is at 10,305,688, a 12.93- percent increase compared to the 9,125,480 vehicles that used the toll road for the same period in 2013. It booked P1.07 billion in revenues during the period under review.