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Tuesday, January 25, 2000
 
AC ( 01/25/2000 : PDI )
THE AYALAS and the Fil-Estate group, partners in the Edsa Mass Rail Transit, are likely to slug it out for the right to manage and operate the P18.24-billion Manila-Calabarzon Express Commuter Rail (MCX) being pushed by the Presidential Committee on Flagship Projects. The clash between the diversified property titans loomed after the Estrada administration decided to change the financing program of the MCX that would lead to a revocation the Ayala group's preferential right to the project and allow other interested parties, such as Fil-Estate, to make a separate bid. Robert Aventajado, presidential adviser on flagship projects, said the government was only informed recently that it could tap the Obuchi Fund to bankroll infrastructure projects. ''With this new information, we have to reformat the terms of the project and start from scratch because the government will have to take over and the project can only be bid out under a Private Sector Participation plan wherein the private sector can only supply, operate and manage the project,'' Aventajado said. The Obuchi Fund is a special financing program by the Japanese government which grants soft-term loans (one percent interest, 40 years to pay with 10-year grace period) to help other governments in Asia recover from the financial crisis. ''We told the Ayala group that getting the Obuchi fund was more advantageous for the government because it would lower the project's investment costs. But the DOTC (Department of Transportation and Communications) cannot revoke Ayala's 'first pass approval' unless the company consents,'' Aventajado said. The government has relayed this development to Ayala, which said it was agreeable to the change in financial terms as long as it retains its first crack at the project. ''The Ayala group is willing to advance the government's 15-percent counterpart funding to Obuchi which amounts to $85 million as long as it will have first crack at MCX.'' The Ayala group has first pass at the project because it was the first to make the unsolicited offer in 1997. Other interested bidders can offer better terms for the project but Ayala has the right to match this offer. Aventajado said Fil-Estate has indicated that it was keen on taking over the project but it has yet to make a formal offer. Aventajado said the government was still looking at the legal implications of changing the financial terms of the project and allowing the Ayala group to retain their right to match any offer. The P18.24-billion project covered only the first phase of the MCX which, upon completion, will stretch from either Paco or Sta. Mesa, Manila to Batangas.
- posted by StockMarket @ 11:02 PM


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