MPTC expects to win the toll project contract for Indonesia in May

PANGILINAN-led Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) hopes to win the contract for its bid for the toll project in Indonesia next month, a company official said.

“We are the preferred bidder. So we are negotiating with Jasamarga. Hopefully we can conclude negotiations within a month. [and] The contract will be awarded at the end of May,” MPTC Chief Finance Officer Christopher Daniel C. Lizo told reporters on April 25.

In 2023, MPTC, the toll road division of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., said. (MPIC), that it expected to invest about $600 million to secure its bid for part of Indonesia’s Trans-Java Toll Road. The company has jointly bid with Singapore’s GIC for a toll project in Indonesia.

The Trans-Java Toll Road in Indonesia is being bid by Jasamarga Transjawa Tol, a state-owned company and the largest toll road operator in Indonesia.

MPTC has a 76.31% stake in PT Nusantara Infrastructure in Indonesia through Metro Pacific Tollways Asia.

PT Nusantara Infrastructure owns infrastructure concessions in both the western and eastern parts of Indonesia. It operates companies in transportation, toll roads, communications and distribution networks.

“An offer was made for 35% of the company. The company that has the concessions, the model in Indonesia is different. There is a government agency that builds the roads, the highways. The government takes responsibility for the right of way, as well as construction over the right of way. Once completed, they will be open to the private sector,” said Mr Lizo.

The Pangilinan-led company is the largest toll road developer in the Philippines. Some of the toll roads include the North Luzon Expressway, the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, Cavite-Laguna Expressway and Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway.

San Miguel Corp. (SMC) and MPIC are in discussions about a possible joint venture for a toll road company.

In March, Ramon S. Ang, president and CEO of SMC, said he expects the planned joint venture with MPIC to be completed in the coming months, pending the review of the toll road division’s Indonesian assets.

MPTC is the toll road unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., one of the three main Philippine units of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., the others being Philex Mining Corp. and PLDT, Inc.

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