New group eyes TransCo rebid

A new group is planning to join the rebidding for the 25-year concession contract of the National Transmission Corp. (TransCo), Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said yesterday.

He said after the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) announced a rebidding for Transco, the group approached him and signified interest to participate in the rebidding.

"There is a new group. But I’m not at liberty to disclose its identity at the moment. Definitely, this is a new group, outside of the three other consortia that have been pre-qualified before," said Teves, who is also PSALM chairman.

Teves admitted that the Chinese-led group, one of the pre-qualified bidders, may not be able to participate in the rebidding due to some problems confronting the company.

"I think the Chinese-led consortium will no longer bid," he said. The group, State Grid of China and its local partner Monte Oro Resources, led by businessman Walter Brown, has been pre-qualified but did not submit an offer in the Feb. 5 bidding.

Meanwhile, the group composed of Italy’s Terna SPA and local partner Citadel Holdings Inc. has not given any formal indication if it would participate, Teves said.

The Terna/Citadel group was the sole bidder during the Feb. 5 auction and should have been a candidate for a negotiated deal with the government. The group earlier warned it might reconsider investing in TransCo should the government choose to rebid the contract to operate the country’s transmission highway.

But after PSALM’s announcement to rebid TransCo, the group suddenly opted to remain silent, which triggered speculations it may reassess its plan to participate in the bidding.

"We hope that they would still come in," Teves said.

Triratna Holdings/Newbridge/Tenaga Berhad, the remaining pre-qualified group fronted by top Filipino businessman Ramon Ang, on the other hand, had signified keen interest to join the rebidding for TransCo.

Teves admitted that the rebidding, however, may take time. "It would take a while before we could come up with a definitive timetable for the rebidding. If we will use an extremely conservative timeline, the rebidding will not happen this year but it would depend on Congress," he said.

He said the PSALM board has to yet determine if they would need to secure a congressional franchise first before rebidding TransCo’s concession.

"We have to see the composition of the new Congress if ever we will get the franchise after the May elections," he said.

On how long it would take the concessionaire to get a franchise, Teves said, it would still depend on the lawmakers. "There are times that Congress could pass a resolution or bill in a very short time. We will try to convince them to fasttrack it," he said.