ALLIANCE Global Group Inc. (AGI) on Wednesday said it is diversifying into the infrastructure space. The firm, led by businessman Andrew Tan, announced the creation of Infracorp Development Inc. that will participate in government’s public-private partnership (PPP) projects.
Infracorp has already submitted this week its unsolicited proposal to the government for the construction of a 2-kilometer monorail. Called Skytrain, the project will link Fort Bonifacio to the Guadalupe station of the Metro Rail Transit (MRT).
The project is expected to benefit around 60,000 to 100,000 passengers daily. By using the automated cable-propelled monorail technology, travel time from Fort Bonifacio to the MRT station is expected to be five minutes.
Infracorp’s proposal includes construction of stations in Guadalupe and Uptown Bonifacio at no cost to the government. The latter station is within the township development of AGI’s real-estate arm Megaworld Corp.
“Given the country’s strong and stable economy, we see a huge opportunity to invest in infrastructure,” said Kevin L. Tan, AGI executive director. “We are excited to participate and optimistic about the government’s aggressive push for infrastructure developments.” Once approved, the Skytrain monorail project will take three years to build. According to Tan, appointed president of Infracorp, it could be interconnected with the subway-system project the government plans to build and which is expected to pass through Fort Bonifacio.
“Funding of the project will be internally generated as part of AGI’s existing capex [capital expenditure] program,” Tan said. “We cannot disclose the exact amount of the investment yet until the government gives us the go signal to proceed. We will follow the rightful process of this exercise.”
Tan said Infracorp is also looking into other potential infrastructure projects, particularly on transport solutions, in several business districts around Metro Manila and in key growth areas around the country.