PANGILINAN-LED Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) hopes to secure the contract for its toll project bid in Indonesia next month, a company official said.

“We are the preferred bidder. So, we are in the process of negotiating with Jasamarga. Hopefully, we can close the negotiation in one month, [and] be awarded the contract by the end of May,” MPTC Chief Finance Officer Christopher Daniel C. Lizo told reporters on April 25.

In 2023, MPTC, the tollway arm of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), said that it expected to invest about $600 million to secure its bid for a portion of the Trans-Java toll road in Indonesia. The company, along with Singapore’s GIC, jointly bid for a toll project in Indonesia.

The Trans-Java toll road in Indonesia is being bid on by Jasamarga Transjawa Tol, a state-owned enterprise and the largest toll road operator in Indonesia.

MPTC, through Metro Pacific Tollways Asia, holds 76.31% share in PT Nusantara Infrastructure in Indonesia.

PT Nusantara Infrastructure owns infrastructure concessions in both the western and the eastern portions of Indonesia. It operates businesses in transportation, toll roads, communication, and distribution networks.

“What was bid out was 35% of the company. The company that holds the concessions, the model in Indonesia is different. There’s a government entity that constructs the roads, the expressways. The government takes responsibility over the right of way as well as the construction over the right of way. Once complete, they are open to the private sector,” Mr. Lizo said.

The Pangilinan-led company is the biggest toll road developer in the Philippines. Some of its tollways include the North Luzon Expressway, the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, Cavite-Laguna Expressway, and Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway.

San Miguel Corp. (SMC) and MPIC have been in discussions regarding a possible joint venture for a toll road business.

In March, SMC President and Chief Executive Officer Ramon S. Ang said that he expects finalizing the planned joint venture with MPIC in the coming months, pending the evaluation of its tollway arm’s Indonesian assets. 

MPTC is the tollways unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., one of three key Philippine units of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., the others being Philex Mining Corp. and PLDT, Inc.

Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a majority stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Ashley Erika O. Jose

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