Megawide’s NAIA move hinged on partner, control
By Revin Mikhael D. Ochave, Reporter
MEGAWIDE Construction Corp. has tied its decision on whether to bid for the P170.6-billion upgrade of the country’s biggest international airport to finding a partner and taking a majority stake in a project consortium.
“If there is no partner, then no. If there is a partner, then we will see. If Megawide is just a minority in a consortium, then no,” Megawide Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Edgar B. Saavedra told reporters at the sidelines of a launch event in Quezon City last week.
The rehabilitation of the aging Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) aims to improve the facility’s annual passenger capacity to at least 62 million from 35 million. The deadline for bid submission is on Dec. 27.
“We want to be a significant (owner) because otherwise our value will be put to waste,” Mr. Saavedra added.
Manuel Louie B. Ferrer, Megawide vice-chairman, said the company had yet to acquire bid documents for the NAIA project.
“We’re not yet sure if we will participate. Maybe we won’t (participate) because the parameters are quite stringent,” Mr. Ferrer said.
“We haven’t acquired the bid documents so we don’t know the details. We haven’t decided yet,” he added.
Despite this, Mr. Saavedra said Megawide is willing to engage with the winning bidder for any construction requirements of NAIA’s rehabilitation.
In December 2020, the proposal for NAIA’s rehabilitation under a partnership between listed infrastructure firm Megawide and Bangalore-based GMR Infrastructure was rejected due to operational and financial viability issues.
In 2017, the Megawide-GMR duo secured the contract to build the new terminal building of the Clark International Airport, which was handed over to the government in January 2021.
Megawide and GMR Airports International BV also formed the GMR-Megawide Cebu Airport Corp. joint venture that previously managed the Mactan-Cebu International Airport.
In December last year, Megawide completed the sale of the airport venture to Aboitiz InfraCapital, Inc.
In August this year, the government opened the public bidding for the public-private partnership to upgrade and operate NAIA. The contract term up for bidding is 15 years and is extendable by another 10 years.
Some of the potential bidders for the NAIA rehabilitation are San Miguel Corp., Manila International Airport Consortium, and Turkish infrastructure firm Cengiz Insaat Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S.
In the first half, Megawide logged P363.16 million in attributable net income, a reversal of the P125.68 million net loss a year ago. The company’s total revenues surged 52.4% to P11.16 billion from P7.32 billion last year.
