San Miguel Corp. investing in an expressway project
The San Miguel Corp., the country’s biggest food and beverage conglomerate is looking to diversify as it looks into taking part in a road construction project.
SMC has signed a non-binding deal with PIDC (Private Infrastructure Development Corp.) to acquire a significant stake in the P15.36-billion Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Toll Expressway project.
San Miguel president Ramon Ang said, “This is in line with our diversification plans and we’re happy to be a catalyst for the infrastructure needs of the country.”
The company did not say how much stake it would acquire, although it has earlier said that it wanted a majority control. Ang said the size of the stake is still “under negotiations.”
The subject of the non-binding contract is an 88-kilometer expressway project that will extend from La Paz, Tarlac (end of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway) to Rosario, La Union. Once completed, present travel time from Manila to Baguio will be cut in half.
The three-phase project, which is being undertaken via a build-operate-transfer contract between the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and PIDC, is expected to be completed by 2013. The first two sections however, are expected to be finished May 2010 and January 2011, respectively.
Of the P15.36-billion estimated cost of the project, P2.9 billion will be subsidized by the government for certain portions of the expressway. It will initially have two lanes, and two more will be added once traffic volume reaches 25,000 vehicles a day.
“The north to central Luzon stretch is a potentially dynamic industrial corridor, and the proposed expressway will make it easier and more cost-effective to move goods and people from one point of Luzon to another. As a food and beverage conglomerate with one of the most developed distribution networks in the country, we have a strong interest in making it happen,” Ang said.
July 20, 2009
Tags: DPWH, infrastructure, investments, North Luzon, PIDC, road construction, San Miguel, SMC Posted in: Uncategorized
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