SEVEN of the country’s top conglomerates—backed by a market capitalization of about P2.2 trillion if combined—have formalized their bid to rehabilitate, operate and maintain the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia), a facility that has outgrown itself with the country being tagged as having one of the worst airports in the world.
In their respective disclosures to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the seven firms said they have agreed to form a consortium composed of the parent companies and their subsidiaries.
The consortium is composed of parent companies Metro Pacific Investments Corp., Andrew Tan’s Alliance Global Group Inc., the Gotianun’s Filinvest Development Corp. and the Gokongwei family’s JG Summit Holdings Inc. The subsidiaries in the consortium are Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc. of Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc., AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp. of Ayala Corp. and Lucio Tan’s Asia’s Emerging Dragons Corp.
The combined market capitalization, or how a company is worth or valued by investors, of the parent of the three subsidiaries are already worth P1.2 trillion, according to the BusinessMirror’s computation.
San Miguel Corp., one of the country’s largest and most aggressive infrastructure companies and which has a market capitalization of about P264 billion, is not present in the consortium. San Miguel, which currently operates the Naia Expressway, is proposing the construction of a new international airport in Bulacan.
“Numerous foreign and local experts have highlighted the advantage of keeping an airport within city limits. Like other major cities in the world, experts recommend an in-city airport and another one outside the metropolis to complement it,” the consortium said. “Megacities that benefit from a two-airport setup include Tokyo (Haneda and Narita) and London (Gatwick and Heathrow).”
The consortium said the Naia will continue to be a strategic gateway for our country and a key hub of airline operations for many more years.
“The consortium will work with foreign technical partners with proven world-class track records and experiences in airport operations to improve, upgrade and enhance the operational efficiencies of Naia covering both land-side and air-side facilities.”
It said that given proper upgrades and strategic improvements, the Naia can easily accommodate an additional 11 million passengers annually from the current 39.5 million passengers, and can increase its hourly aircraft movements—landing and take-off—from 40 movements per hour to 48 movements per hour.
“The unsolicited proposal is intended to help accelerate the government’s “Build, Build, Build” program. Augmenting the Naia’s capacity is the quickest way to address airport congestion while other airports are being developed outside Metro Manila,” the consortium said.
“This approach promotes greater economic benefit and sustainability for the whole country.” The terms of the memorandum of understanding, or framework of the consortium, are still under negotiation.