Groups keen on airport deal
TWO MORE conglomerates - San Miguel Corp and Ayala Corp - are interested in participating in a 74.6-billion-peso (Bt53.4 billion) contract to modernise and operate Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport, the country’s busiest aviation gateway.
Metro Pacific Investments Corp chair Manuel Pangilinan said last week they were also keen on looking into what could be the Philippines’ most coveted airport public private partnership (PPP) deal.
Ramon Ang, president and chief operating officer of SMC, said on Wednesday that they planned to join the bid.
“We will join all the bidding [of PPPs] to support the government,” he said.
Rene Almendras, Ayala managing director and CEO of AC Infrastructure Holdings, said the group was studying the project.
“We are definitely looking at it,” he said. “I met a few foreign partners abroad. So there are many people who will be looking. We want to make sure we put a good team. It’s a complex project, an international gateway.”
The Naia development project was initially planned under the Aquino administration.
The National Economic and Development Authority board approved the project only last week. Details on what the project involved were few at this stage.
