MPTC defers IPO to 2025, awaits SMC merger

MANILA, Philippines — Expressway builder Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) is deferring its plan to make an initial public offering (IPO) in 2025 pending a decision on whether it will be merged with San Miguel Corp.’s (SMC) toll road business.

MPTC was supposed to join the main board of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) following the delisting of its parent Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC).

However, MPTC president and CEO Rogelio Singson said the plan to list at the PSE has to be deferred until 2025 on the possibility that MPTC would be merged with SMC’s expressway arm.

“As far as MPTC is concerned, we were ready to do an IPO after the delisting of MPIC. However, it has to be delayed because we have to find out whether we will merge first (with SMC),” Singson said.

Singson said MPTC was ready to go public in the third quarter of this year after the management concluded its review of the finances. For MPTC, opening the company to the public will mean raising fresh funds needed to finish projects and pay off debts.

Right now, there is a likelihood that MPTC and SMC will form a joint venture first, and that the resulting company will fulfill MPTC’s plan to go public.

If this happens, Singson said, it would take at least two years before the IPO is made, as both MPTC and SMC would have to open their records for evaluation.

“It (IPO) will most likely be in 2025. We have to open each other’s books, we have to study our finances. We also have to engage a third party assessor,” Singson said.

In August MPTC and SMC signed a P72 billion deal to build the Cavite-Batangas Expressway (CBEX) and Nasugbu-Bauan Expressway (NBEX) that will run for a combined 88 kilometers. It marked the first time that the toll road rivals will work on a project as large as CBEX and NBEX.

Afterward, SMC president and CEO Ramon Ang made a personal investment in MPIC following its exit from the main index of the PSE. Ang was also elected to the board of the company.

With these developments, talks have emerged that MPTC and SMC may integrate their toll road businesses down the line.

MPTC manages the North Luzon Expressway, Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, Manila-Cavite Expressway, Cavite-Laguna Expressway and Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway, while SMC runs the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway, Skyway System, Southern Tagalog Arterial Road, South Luzon Expressway and NAIA Expressway.