Megawide says it can finance NAIA rehab project ‘in phases’

MEGAWIDE Construction Corp. on Monday reiterated it has enough options to finance the P107-billion Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) rehabilitation project.

Megawide issued the statement in response to a news report about its alleged “non-compliance” with the documentary requirements to prove its financial capability to carry out the multibillion-peso project.

The company said it can sustain the financing requirements of the project in “different phases.”

Megawide added its “financial management plan provides sufficient equity and leverages debt at manageable levels in order to fund the project in compliance with the requirements set out in… the BOT (build-operate-transfer) law implementing rules and regulations.”

The company also said it submitted “all the necessary documents” to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Investment Coordination Committee-Cabinet Committee (ICC).

In August, Transportation Undersecretary for Planning & Project Development Ruben S. Reinoso said at an online briefing that the NEDA-ICC had asked the joint venture of Megawide and GMR Infrastructure Ltd. to clarify issues “on financial capacity and the joint and solidary liability agreement of the consortium,” before negotiations could continue.

On Monday, Megawide reiterated that its “financial fundamentals are strong, and it has the complete capability to fully meet all financing requirements of the NAIA project in its proposed phases.”

The GMR-Megawide tandem received the original proponent status (OPS) for the NAIA rehabilitation project in June, after the government revoked the OPS granted to the so-called super consortium of the country’s top conglomerates.

The GMR-Megawide tandem submitted in March 2018 a $3-billion unsolicited proposal to rehabilitate NAIA over an 18-year period. At that time, they said they plan to increase NAIA’s capacity to 72 million annual passengers from its original 30.5 million by boosting the airfield capacity to 950-1,000 aircraft movements per day and expanding existing terminals to more than 700,000 square meters. — Arjay L. Balinbin

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Article and Photo originally posted by Business World last November 10, 2020, 12:03am.