Construction magnate Consunji sells entire TPLEX stake to San Miguel

MANILA, Philippines — The empire of construction magnate Isidro Consunji has sold its entire stake in the concessionaire of the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX) to a unit of San Miguel Corporation (SMC) for P1.8 billion.

This allows diversified conglomerate SMC to gain full ownership of the Private Infra Dev Corporation (PIDC), which operates TPLEX.

DMCI Holdings, Incorporated told the Philippine Stock Exchange on Tuesday, September 22 that it and its subsidiary DM Consunji, Incorporated completed the sale of its 25% stake in the TPLEX concessionaire.

“DMCI Holdings Incorporated and its wholly-owned subsidiary DM Consunji Incorporated have concluded the sale of their respective shares in PIDC to Rapid Thoroughfares Incorporated,” DMCI said in a disclosure.

The deal involves 1.45 million shares held by DMCI Holdings, or 24.29% of the consortium.

It also involves DM Consunji’s 49,002 shares or a 0.82% of the consortium.

This transaction was approved by the DMCI group’s board of directors in December last year. TPLEX is seen to reduce travel time between Manila and Baguio to two to three hours from 6.

The construction of the 88.5-kilometer expressway started in August 2010.

Once completed, the entire length of the tollway will have nine exits: La Paz in Tarlac City, Victoria, Gerona, Paniqui and Moncada in Tarlac; Rosales, Urdaneta City, and Pozorrubio in Pangasinan, and Rosario in La Union. — Rappler.com