More firms eye Laguna Lakeshore project

MANILA, Philippines - Vista Land and Lifescape Inc., a property arm of former Sen. Manny Villar, together with Malaysian-owned Alloy MTD Philippines and Hashin Group of Korea are joining hands to bid for the Aquino administration’s largest public private partnership (PPP) project.

Isaac David, president of Alloy MTD, said in an interview that Alloy MTD-Hashin-Vista Land consortium would join the bidding for the P123 billion Laguna Lakeshore Expressway Dike project.

David said the group is also talking with the world’s number one Dutch-owned reclamation firm Van Oord to join the consortium.

“We just talked but will revert back soon to confirm their equity share,” he said.

This brings to 20 the number of companies interested in the project, according to the PPP Center.

The agency identified the following groups as those that purchased bid documents for the project: San Miguel Corp. (SMC), the Lucio Tan Group, Ayala Land Inc., Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), Megaworld Corp., GT Capital Holdings Inc., Filinvest Land Inc., JG Summit Holdings, the Aboitiz Group of Cebu, the Laguna Lakeshore Consortium, JV Power and Wealth Corp., Macquarie Capital Securities, Minerales Industrias Corp., Megawide Construction Corp., PT Star Line, and State Properties Corp.

Philippine units of foreign firms including Egis SA of France, Leighton Contractors of Australia, and Muhibbah Engineering (M) Berhad of Malaysia are also looking at the project.

The DPWH has given interested companies have until Oct. 16 to submit their prequialification documents.

The government has tapped US-based Jones Day as transaction advisor for the project.

The international law firm and project advisory company was commissioned as transaction advisor for the project of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

Through the PPP Center’s Project Development and Monitoring Facility (PDMF), Jones Day was engaged to conduct due diligence review of the project feasibility study, manage the project’s bidding process, prepare PPP transaction documents and provide advisory support to DPWH.

Jones Day is an international law firm with 41 offices worldwide and considered as the third largest law firm in the world.

Jones Day would also provide PPP transaction advisory support to DPWH