Aboitiz Group interested in Davao International Airport

Sabin Aboitiz, the CEO of Aboitiz Equity Ventures [AEV 37.30, up 0.8%; 68% avgVol] [link] said that they’re “looking into” putting in a bid to manage and operate the Davao International Airport (DIA). Mr. Aboitiz said that it will “[depend] on the terms”, and that AEV is waiting on the government to provide the terms of reference for the bid. According to AEV, the government wants to conduct a solicited auction, not the unsolicited procedure that was popularized under the Duterte administration.

MB bottom-line: The DIA is our third-largest airport by passenger volume. Since losing out on its bid to rehab our biggest airport (NAIA), AEV has pivoted to becoming a regional airport powerhouse through its acquisition of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport from Megawide, its recent win of the concession to operate the sixth-largest airport (in CDO), and it’s interest in winning concessions to operate several other airports in the Philippine top 20. This push to operate DIA would give it a sizeable chunk of the country’s annual passenger volume. Based on my back-of-the-envelope math, they’ve already got around 14% of the marketshare by passenger volume. Bagging DIA would push them up into the 20% range. Considering NAIA itself is 60% of the market, that’s a pretty big piece of the pie (if they can swing it).

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