The consortium of listed builder Megawide Construction Corp. and Bangalore-based airport operator GMR Infrastructure Ltd. has won the contract to build a new terminal building at Clark International Airport, the Bases Conversion and Development Authority announced in a press release on Tuesday.

“The Department of Transportation and the Bases Conversion and Development Authority have awarded the engineering, procurement and construction contract for the Clark International Airport new terminal building to the Megawide-GMR Consortium,” the statement read, noting that the group had submitted “lowest calculated responsive bid” and passed post-qualification evaluation phase that checked the veracity of documents it had submitted.

BCDA said the Megawide-GMR consortium had submitted the lowest financial proposal of P9.36 billion in an auction on Dec. 14 — about 25% lower than the P12.55-billion auction ceiling — beating four other contenders, namely: Sinohydro Corporation Limited (P10.68 billion), China Harbour Engineering Company Limited (P11.73 billion), China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited (P12.3 billion) as well as the consortium of Tokwing Construction Corp. and China Machinery Engineering Corp. (P12.45 billion).

The National Economic and Development Authority Board, headed by President Rodrigo R. Duterte, gave the green light for the BCDA’s Clark International Airport Expansion Project to proceed in a meeting on June 27.

It involves construction by 2019 of a 82,600-square-meter terminal building designed to handle eight million passengers a year, nearly double the current 4.2 million capacity.

Offered to investors in July, the project kick-started the Duterte administration’s “hybrid” mode of financing big infrastructure, involving use of state funds or foreign aid in the construction phase and public-private partnership (PPP) for the operation and maintenance segment. The new terminal building is scheduled to break ground today at the Clark Civil Aviation Complex in Pampanga, BCDA said in its statement.

Clark International Airport has long been singled out as an alternative gateway to decongest Ninoy Aquino International Airport, which accommodated over 39.5 million passengers in 2016, way above its 30.5 million designed capacity. The project also jibes with government plans to develop a 9,450-hectare area in Clark Freeport and Special Economic Zone as a major investment center.

Megawide itself is no stranger to airport terminal development, having bagged in 2014 — again in a consortium with GMR — the 25-year PPP contract to build, operate and maintain a new Mactan Cebu International Airport terminal for some P17.52 billion.

“Megawide will be building on its previous success and expertise, which it garnered from the Mactan Cebu International Airport… Aside from bagging these big-ticket items, the third-quarter earnings were above our expectations as construction revenues finally picked up,” Luis A. Limlingan, managing director at Regina Capital Development Corp., said in a mobile phone message.

The nine months to September saw profit attributable to Megawide’s controlling shareholders grow 5.73% to P1.383 billion year on year, on the back of a four percent increase in revenues to P14.26 billion.

Megawide’s share price settled up 1.23% at P18.10 apiece on Tuesday after hitting a high of P18.28 (up 2.24%) and a low of P17.80 (down a nearly flat 0.45%), compared to their P17.88 finish last Monday. — Patrizia Paola C. Marcelo

Source: https://bworldonline.com/megawide-gmr-build-clark-terminal/