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LOPEZ-owned First Philippine Infrastructure Inc. (FPII)
is spending nearly P1.5 billion for the construction of
a 2.5-kilometer road that will provide easy access to
the North Luzon Expressway (Nlex).
At the
sidelines of the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting
Wednesday, FPII president Angel Ong said, in an
interview, the investment will be funded by a
combination of local bank debts and internal cash.
“Once
the process of determination of the right-of-way is
completed, we can award the contract to build in
October,” he said.
The
road, which is part of the Phase 2 development of Nlex,
will connect Mindanao Avenue in Quezon City to
Valenzuela. With this road, Ong said, motorists can have
easy way in to Nlex without passing through the usually
traffic-congested Edsa-Balintawak area.
Formerly
City Resources Corp., FPII is the parent company of
First Philippine Infrastructure Development Corp., which
owns interests in Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC),
concessionaire of the Nlex, and Tollways Management
Corp., which operates and maintains the Nlex on a
contract with MNTC.
FPII is
in the process of completing a tender offer, following
the capital structure that took effect last year. The
company is 98.1-percent owned by Lopez firms, Benpres
Holdings Corp. and First Philippine Holdings Corp.
If the
minority shareholders will avail of the tender offer,
FPII will be almost 100-percent owned by the Lopez
group. But according to Ong, once other fund-raising
activities are implemented, the ownership of the Lopezes
will eventually be diluted.
The Nlex
is the main artery to the major economic and tourism
centers north of Manila, including Clark Special
Economic Zone, Subic Bay Freeport and Special Economic
Zone, industrial parks in the provinces of Bulacan,
Bataan, Pangasinan, Tarlac and La Union and Baguio City.
Shareholders approved the renaming of City Resources to
First Philippine Infrastructure Inc. in May last year.
In 1994,
before the Lopez group acquired it, City Resources sold
its mining rights in Camarines Norte province, southeast
of Manila. That year, the Securities and Exchange
Commission approved a change in the company’s business
purpose to that of a holding firm. Since then, City
Resources has not conducted any business, prompting the
Philippine Stock Exchange to suspend trading on its
shares in May 1994.
In 1996,
Lopez Inc., the group’s private investment company,
acquired the right to buy 91.6 percent of City Resources
from Starfield Holdings Inc. |
