MPIC, JG Summit form JV for Cebu airport bid

MANILA, Philippines – Two of the country’s largest conglomerates—Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and JG Summit Holdings Inc.—formalized their agreement to jointly bid for the P17-billion Mactan-Cebu airport expansion project.

The companies signed Monday, February 25, a memorandum of agreement to create a joint venture that will purse and bid for the development of the Philippines’ second largest and busiest international gateway.

The venture, MPIC-JGS Airport Consortium Inc., will be majority owned by MPIC and JG Summit at 33%, and their airport operator partner at 10%.

This will be JG Summit’s foray into infrastructure development, MPIC’s core business.

MPIC chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan and JG Summit President and COO Lance Gokongwei said they are “pleased” with the partnership and are bullish about the outcome of their combined expertise.

“The strong ties of the Gokongwei family in Cebu, through its ancestral roots and economic contribution in various real estate developments and retail businesses account for a deep sense of commitment to further improve Cebu’s business links to the rest of the world,” Pangilinan said.

“Integrating both our management expertise, corporate governance adherence and solid track record in developing large-scale infrastructure projects will strengthen the capabilities of the airport in responding to the needs of both passenger and airline customers,” he added.

Gokongwei said, “[MPIC’s] experience in developing public infrastructure projects and in bidding for the same under the government’s current PPP system, brings great value to this partnership.”

MPIC and JG Summit—telco rivals-turned partners—are two of the Philippines’ largest conglomerates with a combined market capitalization of over P398 billion.

MPIC is a leading infrastructure investment company engaged in water (Maynilad Water Services) and electricity (Meralco) distribution, toll roads (mainly North Luzon Expressway) and hospitals.

JG Summit has interests in air transportation (Cebu Pacific), real estate (Robinsons Land), and food and beverage (Universal Robina).

The partners will compete against other powerhouse conglomerates for the Mactan airport, including partners Ayala and Aboitiz groups, San Miguel Corp., the Lucio Tan group, and Korean, Malaysian and Singapore bigwigs. About a dozen companies bought bid documents. – Rappler.com