MPTC spending P14 billion for CALAX, CAVITEX works

MANILA, Philippines — The Metro Pacific Group expects daily traffic in its southern tollways to increase to 345,000 next year, confident it would complete all of its projects with a P14-billion war chest.

MPT South yesterday announced it is allocating close to P9 billion in 2025 to complete the remaining phases of the Cavite-Laguna Expressway (CALAX), from Silang to Kawit, Cavite.

Likewise, MPT South is spending more than P5 billion next year to deliver the final sections of the connector road between the Manila-Cavite Expressway (CAVITEX) and C5 Road, known as the CAVITEX-C5 Link.

MPT South vice president for finance Elnora Rumawak said the company would fund its capital expenditures through a mix of equity and debt. In particular, MPT South is borrowing P6 billion for CALAX and P3 billion for CAVITEX from local banks.

The concessionaire is hopeful the government would be able to turn over the right-of-way (ROW) for the remaining segments of CALAX and CAVITEX this year. MPT South has also offered to pay advances for ROW acquisition, to be reimbursed by the government.

Once the expressways are done, MPT South expects daily traffic in its toll network to increase by 28 percent to 344,514 in 2025, from 259,815 currently.

MPT South president and general manager Raul Ignacio said the timeline may be challenging to achieve, but the company is speeding up the civil works to stay within schedule.

For CALAX, MPT South has received at least 75 percent of the ROW for each of the remaining subsections covering the stretch from Governor’s Drive to Kawit.

The concessionaire has gained over 73 percent of the ROW for Segment 3B of the CAVITEX-C5 Link, although it has yet to make significant progress on construction. The P3.3-billion contract for the project was awarded in May to construction giant D.M. Consunji Inc.

Similarly, MPT South has built 11 percent of the CAVITEX-CALAX Link, which would run for 1.3 kilometers bridging the Kawit sections of the tollways. Construction giant EEI Corp. won the P1.79-billion deal to put up the project.

MPT South, a unit of Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., expects to close 2024 with a revenue of P3.4 billion, up by 13 percent from P3 billion in 2023.

However, MPT South’s core income would likely remain at P1.4 billion, as the company has to invest more for infrastructure projects this year.