Two more groups bought bid documents for the P171-billion contract to rehabilitate, optimize and maintain the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, bringing to five the interested parties in the project.
Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Jaime Bautista said he is “extremely optimistic” that the bidding would be a success after five potential bidders expressed interest to participate in the auction.
The DOTr said Spark 888 Management Inc. and Asian Airport Consortium purchased bid documents for the auction. The DOTr did not provide more details on the two firms.
San Miguel Corp., India’s GMR Group and the Manila International Airport Consortium also purchased bid documents earlier.
San Miguel is building the P734-billion New Manila International Airport in Bulacan, while GMR is the largest private airport operator in Asia and among the largest globally, handling passengers in excess of 100 million annually and a partner of Megawide Corp. for the Mactan Cebu International Airport.
MIAC is composed of AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., Aboitiz InfraCapital, Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corp., Alliance Global-Infracorp Development Inc., Filinvest Development Corp. and JG Summit Infrastructure Holdings Corp.
The DOTr and the Manila International Airport Authority began inviting interested parties on Aug. 23 to participate in a single-stage competitive bidding process for a rehabilitate-operate-expand-transfer modality, in accordance with the Build-Operate-and-Transfer Law and its revised 2022 implementing rules and regulations.
Based on the invitation to bid, the concession agreement and certain other documents that provide background information on the project will be made available to prospective bidders through a virtual data room upon payment of a participation fee of P2.75 million or $50,000.
The issuance of the draft concession agreement is set on Sept. 8, while the pre-bid conference will be on Sept. 22. The bid submission is scheduled on Dec. 27, 2023.
The DOTr said the bidder should have a net worth of at least P20 billion and would be required to post bid security of P1.71 billion standby letter of credit as part of its bid proposal.
“If the bidder is a consortium and any consortium member or such consortium members’ affiliates is an airline-related entity, then such consortium member cannot own or be proposed to own more than 33 percent interest in such consortium,” the agency said.
It said the bidder should have been an owner or concessionaire of an airport for which capital costs incurred was at least P10 billion and may have owned or has been the concessionaire for the airport for less than 10 years within the eligible period.
It said for the O&M experience, the bidder should have expertise and experience in having undertaken the operation and maintenance of an international airport for at least three consecutive calendar years anytime within the eligible period and handled an annual passenger throughput of 25 million passengers per annum, including 10 million passengers.
The DOTr and the MIAA serve as co-grantors for the project, which would have a 15-year concession and an option for a 10-year extension.
The agencies expect to award the contract by end-2023.
