Philippine Infradev COO claims Makati Subway Project 'not very affected', that 'project will still continue'

Philippine Infradev [INFRA 0.57, up 9.6%] [link] COO Georgina Monsod gave an interview with Hitoshi Iemura of Global Strategy Real Estate that was posted on Youtube on Nov. 28, 2023, where she spoke about the September court decision that altered the land distribution between Taguig and Makati, and about how that might impact INFRA’s crown jewel project, the Makati City Subway. This interview appears to have happened nearly three months after the court decision and the INFRA disclosure where the company stated that the “alignment of the subway will no longer be feasible” due to several stations now belonging to Taguig. In the interview, Mr. Iemura asks plainly, “What’s going on with the Makati City Subway project construction? How will you proceed?” Ms. Monsod responds that they are “undergoing some reviews”, but assures Mr. Iemura that “we are not very affected” and that “the project will still continue”. Later in the interview, Ms. Monsod says that they’re “looking at another plan”, and then vaguely notes that they might “look at modernizing the project”. Even stranger was the comment that INFRA is “looking at maybe another plan for another form of subway, another form of transportation, but still the rail.”

MB bottom-line: This is a weird one to me because it’s not clear exactly when this interview was conducted. YouTube says that it was posted on November 28, but it’s possible that the interview itself could have happened at any time prior, possibly even before the court decision. Based on Ms. Monsod’s comments about the decision and about the “friendly discussions” with the city, it seems that this talk was after the decision and after the disclosure that labeled the subway plan “no longer feasible”. If the interview happened sometime after that infeasibility disclosure, then it seems a little wild to me for Ms. Monsod to be putting foreign investor fears at ease by claiming that INFRA is “not very affected” by the decision that absolutely killed their original plan to the point where she’s already trying to re-frame the discussion away from the dead and lame subway to something more modern and green “but still the rail.” We haven’t heard anything from INFRA on how discussions with Makati and Taguig have been progressing, but this interview appears to refer to parts of an adjusted plan that hasn’t been disclosed to the public yet. It’s been five months. Might be time for an update?

-

Merkado Barkada is a free daily newsletter on the PSE, investing and business in the Philippines. You can subscribe to the newsletter or follow on Twitter to receive the full daily updates.