Changi-led consortium wins contract to operate Clark airport

By Denise A. Valdez, Reporter
THE government on Thursday awarded the operations and management contract for the Clark International Airport in Pampanga to a consortium that includes the operator of Singapore’s Changi Airport, as well as the Gokongwei and Gotinanun groups.
In a statement, the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) said the contract was awarded to the North Luzon Airport Consortium (NLAC), which comprises Changi Airports Philippines Pte. Ltd., Filinvest Development Corp.; JG Summit Holdings, Inc.; and Philippine Airport Ground Support Solutions, Inc.
This came after the National Economic and Development Authority Investment Coordination Committee (NEDA-ICC) gave the go signal for the award during its Dec. 19 meeting.
Special Bids and Awards Committee (SBAC) Chairperson Joshua M. Bingcang told BusinessWorld the signing of the O&M contract is slated for January.
“In our award notice to them, we gave them 20 days to submit post-award requirements like performance security, evidence of registration with SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission), etcetera. They need to submit those (before the signing of the contract),” Mr. Bingcang said in a phone interview.
NLAC submitted a financial bid committing an 18.25% annual gross revenue percentage share to the government, almost twice the minimum requirement set by the NEDA Board at 10%.
The consortium is set to take over both the existing passenger terminal at the Clark airport and the new one that Megawide Construction Corp. and GMR Infrastructure Ltd. (Megawide-GMR) is building. The contract will run for 25 years.
Aside from NLAC, another group comprised of Indonesia’s Angkasa Pura II, Michael L. Romero’s Globalport 900, Inc., Alfredo M. Yao’s Mazy’s Capital, Inc. and Desco, Inc. — collectively called X-Droid Consortium — also participated in the bidding. It was disqualified after having found eight deficiencies in its qualification documents.
Mr. Bingcang said the X-Droid Consortium was given 15 days to appeal its disqualification, which the group did not exercise until the period lapsed.
Earlier this year, Filinvest and JG Summit also submitted a P839-billion unsolicited proposal to develop the Clark airport, but was rejected because of the government’s plan to bid out the O&M contract.