AEV eager to take off on regional airports bid

MANILA, Philippines - Cebu-based conglomerate Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. (AEV) is eager to stage a strong comeback with an upcoming airport bid after a failed attempt last year, the company’s top executive said.

In an interview Thursday night, AEV president and chief executive officer Erramon Aboitiz said the company has taken a few notes from its failed bid for the P17.5-billion Mactan-Cebu International Airport project last year as it looks to bag the P108.2-billion bundled regional airport projects being offered under the government’s public-private partnership (PPP) program.

 “Actually just a few days ago, we were looking back saying where can we have done better or where was the advantage.  And the way we looked at it, these bids are all about assumptions. One doesn’t really know if one is aggressive enough or not. So looking back, we’re just going to give it the very best for this one,” Aboitiz said.

The regional airports project will be bid out in two bundles. The first bundle covers the P20.26-billion Bacolod-Silay Airport and P30.40-billion Iloilo Airport, while the second one consists of the P40.57-billion Davao Airport, P14.62-billion Laguindingan Airport and P2.34- billion New Bohol Airport.

“We will bid for all five, whether we’ll be able to win all of them or in groups we don’t know but we will give it a shot. It’s quite important to us because it is clearly a new direction which has a lot of growth potential,” Aboitiz said.

AEV will undertake the bid in partnership with European firm VINCI Airports in a joint venture called Maya Consortium.

According to Aboitiz, winning the airport projects would be a significant boost to the conglomerate’s infrastructure venture which it has made as the fifth leg of its business structure.

AEV is also a major player in the business of power, banking, food, and land development.

“We are very excited about the opportunity. Airports in the Philippines are really going to be needed. Expect tourism to grow as our economy grows and Filipinos travel more. We’re very positive about airports and I think there’s going to be a need for flights to go direct in these places (considered as tourist hot spots). Hopefully if we can improve all these airports and make it available for regional flights, I think that’s going to help a lot,” Aboitiz said.