THE provincial government of Cavite said on Wednesday, MacroAsia Corp. and its partner China Communications Construction Co. Ltd. (CCCC) have formally submitted their consortium agreement.
“We will evaluate the validity of their [consortium] agreement,” Cavite Gov. Juanito Victor “Jonvic” C. Remulla told BusinessWorld in a phone message.
Mr. Remulla also said the province targets to seal a joint venture agreement with the MacroAsia-CCCC consortium in December.
Cavite expects all issues “joined and settled in 21 days,” he noted.
“We still have PR issues to tackle. I’m going to be hit on all sides because there are other interested parties. I’m confident though that as long as I keep my nose clean and do the right things for the right reasons, good things will happen,” the Cavite governor said further.
The Cavite province initially targeted to break ground for the first phase of the airport project in the second quarter of the year.
The $4-billion first phase of the project covers the construction of a connector road and a bridge to connect the Kawit segment of the Manila-Cavite Expressway to the airport. It also involves the construction of the airport’s first runway.
The airport is rated at 25 million passengers yearly, and is intended to help decongest the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
It is expected to be fully operational by 2023, with partial operations to start a year earlier. The fourth runway will be opened after six years.
The same consortium will work on the other two phases.
MacroAsia incurred losses of P269.44 million in the third quarter, a reversal of its profits a year ago, as the group’s core business segments “continue to be impacted by the downturn in air travel due to COVID-19-related quarantine and airport restrictions from March 2020 onwards,” the company said in a recent stock exchange disclosure.
In the same quarter last year, MacroAsia recorded an attributable net income of P300.05 million.
MacroAsia shares on Wednesday closed 5.90% lower at P8.13 apiece. — Arjay L. Balinbin
