TransCo bidders reduced to 3

The number of bidders pre-qualified to bid for the National Transmission Corp.’s 25-year concession contract has been trimmed down to three, industry sources said.

Sources said the three groups are Terna-Rete Elettrica Nazionale S.p.A. of Italy with Two Rivers Holdings Pacific of the Metro Pacific group of businessman Manny Pangilinan; Malaysian group Tenaga Nasional Berhad with Newbridge Asia LLP in partnership with Triratna Holdings; and State Grid of China with Monte Oro Resources.

The two other supposed bidders-Canadian firm SNC-Lavalin and the Power Grid Corp. of India Ltd. – were reportedly not able to meet the requirements set by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM), the state agency overseeing the sale of the government’s power assets.

Incidentally, the three remaining bidders were also those that figured in Transco’s previous bidding last in February.

The pre-bid conference will be held on Nov. 15 instead of the earlier scheduled Nov. 5.

Despite the slight delay on the pre-bid process, sources said the asset management firm will definitely hold the bidding of the TransCo’s concession contract on Dec. 12.

The TransCo bidding will be closed to the public, according to a PSALM official said.

PSALM president Jose Ibazeta said this was in response to the request of prospective bidders.

“We will not allow media coverage this time. We will hold a closed door bidding process for TransCo to protect the bidders. They have requested the identities of the bidders be withheld from the public,” he said.

It would be recalled that of the three groups that surfaced during the previous bidding for TransCo, only one submitted a bid.

Ibazeta said they have also resolved all the issues that were raised by the previous bidders.

“We have removed all the provisions that were believed to be ‘questionable’ and unacceptable to bidders,” he said.

The official list of pre-qualified bidders will be released after the evaluation of documents is completed. The evaluation process starts immediately. This will include checking the veracity of the submitted technical documents to prove the existence of the bidders’ respective “qualifying electricity transmission systems.”

Bidders for the TransCo concession must have a member or affiliate with experience in operating and maintaining electricity transmission systems comparable to that of the Philippines, consisting of not less than 6,000 circuit kilometers of transmission lines operating at 115 kilovolts (kv) or higher and including within it a system operating at not less than 230 kv and having a peak demand of at least 6,000 megawatts.

The member of the prospective bidder who meets the technical pre-qualification criteria must have a net asset value or market capitalization of at least $500 million.