3 inmates killed in Jolo jailbreak
THREE INMATES were killed Sunday and another was wounded after escaping from jail in a southern Philippine island that is the stronghold of Islamist militants, police said.
MPIC mulls bid to operate Clark airport terminal
METRO PACIFIC Investments Corp. (MPIC) is interested in taking over the operations and maintenance (O&M) of Clark International Airport’s proposed new terminal when the contract is bid out by the government.
“Yes, we’ll take a look at it,” MPIC Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan told reporters last week when asked if the infrastructure conglomerate would be interested to join the bidding of the O&M component of the Clark Airport expansion.
The government earlier this year announced it will pursue the P12.55-billion Clark International Airport Expansion Project on its own and eventually bid out the O&M contract for the airport.
It will offer to investors this month the contract to build an 82,600-square-meter terminal building that will be designed to accommodate eight million passengers a year, nearly double the current 4.2 million capacity, and should be completed by 2019.
“I think lahat ng UP (unsolicited proposal), na-submit na so, what the government is bidding out is the construction of the new terminal and then O&M so yeah [we’re interested],” Mr. Pangilinan further said.
Bidding for both the construction and O&M of the Clark airport is scheduled this year. The government had said it will not wait for the construction of the airport to finish before bidding out the O&M contract, citing the need for the private operator to have inputs in the design and construction.
Vivencio B. Dizon, Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) president and chief executive officer, earlier said the tender for the maintenance and operation of the expanded Clark airport will take place a few months after the bidding for the construction of the new terminal.
MPIC earlier submitted an unsolicited proposal to rehabilitate and expand Clark, despite pronouncements from government that it will pursue the project on its own first, and eventually bid out the operations and maintenance contract.
Aside from MPIC, Megawide Construction Corp., along with Bangalore-based airport operator GMR Infrastructure Ltd., earlier expressed interest in developing the gateway in Clark. Last year, the company submitted a $5-billion unsolicited proposal to develop the Clark airport to the government. The Filinvest Group and JG Summit Holdings, Inc., also turned in a $3.7-billion unsolicited proposal for the expansion and upgrade of the gateway in Pampanga.
The government rejected these proposals and decided to pursue the project that will test the waters for a “hybrid” financing scheme that will see a mix of state funding and public-private partnerships (PPP) for the O&M component of the project.
The government, which has made infrastructure its priority, has said it will reduce reliance on PPP which it says takes too long to implement projects as some losing bidders stall the progress of major projects by securing court injunctions after questioning the bidding process.
The government has been promoting Clark as an alternative gateway to help decongest the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) which has been accommodating passenger traffic far above its designed capacity. In 2016 for example, NAIA reported that it handled 39.5 million passengers, against its rated capacity of 30.5 million.
MPIC is one of three Philippine subsidiaries of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., the others being PLDT, Inc. and Philex Mining Corp. Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., maintains interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Imee Charlee C. Delavin
ICTSI expects strong growth to continue this year
By Imee Charlee C. Delavin,
Senior Reporter
INTERNATIONAL Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) is looking at a better performance this year, as its diverse investments around the world are expected to bring in profits amid headwinds that continue to affect global trade.
“[It’s] always positive. Our outlook has been very strong, we have a very diversified portfolio. The good thing about having a very diversified portfolio is when you kind of feel stressed in one region of the world, it’s mitigated by benefits and success in other regions of the world,” ICTSI Senior Vice-President and Regional Head of Asia Pacific Christian R. Gonzalez said in a recent interview.
“When a lot of these economic noise that’s out there now kinda dies down, we see a very, very positive outlook for global trade and better growth certainly than we saw last year and this year,” he added.
ICTSI saw its attributable net income went up 207% to $180 million in 2016 from the $58.5 million recorded in 2015 driven by strong volume growth and revenues from its port operations.
In the first quarter of 2017, the Enrique K. Razon-led port operator saw its net income attributable to equity holders jump 23% to $51.7 million from the $42.2 million it earned during the same period last year.
Mr. Gonzalez said as long as its ports are able to handle the requirements of big ships, then the operator could expect “better growth” trajectory from last year.
“As long as we can handle big ships and our infrastructure continues to meet the requirements of these bigger ships, I think the outlook is going to be very, very strong. The places where we just recently developed — Iraq, Colombia, we’re now pushing forward already in Honduras — obviously are gearing up for bigger ships. Melbourne also being in a position to handle much bigger ships than the competition, I think again the outlook is very, very strong,” Mr. Gonzalez explained.
ICTSI earlier moved to bid for new projects this year to sustain its growth momentum amid headwinds that continue to affect global trade, including the protectionist policy of the Trump administration.
The port operator made a bid for Greece’s second-largest port last May, but lost out to German private equity firm Deutsche Invest Equity Partners.
Recently, Mr. Gonzalez disclosed that ICTSI is currently monitoring three port projects in Africa, one in Asia, and another in an undisclosed location.
Adding more terminals around the world will help the company minimize the impact of risks in some of the ports it operate.
ICTSI, which operates 30 terminals in 20 countries, has set its capital expenditure this year at $240 million. Last year, the company spent only $391.9 million of the programmed $420-million capex as most of its expansion projects were completed.
For this year, the capex is mostly “for the completion of the initial stage development of the company’s greenfield projects in Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq; the second stage development of the company’s project in Australia; continuing development of the company’s container terminals in Mexico and Honduras; and capacity expansion in its terminal operations in Manila.”
In 2016, ICTSI completed the initial stage of its new container terminals in Australia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq.
As of end March, the Razon-led port operator already spent $33 million, approximately 14% of the planned capital expenditure budget for the full year 2017.