San Miguel, LT Group join 12 others in contest for Laguna Lakeshore PPP project

 The list of bidders for the Aquino administration's biggest public-private partnership (PPP) project to date is growing longer, with San Miguel Corp and the Lucio Tan Group tossing their hats in the ring.

PPP Center executive director Cosette Canilao said 14 companies have purchased bid documents for the P122.8 billion Laguna Lakeshore Expressway Dike Project (LLEDP). The 14 firms are as follows:
Muhibbah Engineering Corp
GT Capital Holdings Inc
Ayala Land Inc
Egis Projects SA
Megaworld Corp
Metro Pacific Investments Corp
Minerales Industrias Corp
Leighton
JV Power and Wealth Corp
LT Group, Inc
Laguna Lakeshore Consortium (Wenceslao Group)
Filinvest land
Macquarie Capital Securities
San Miguel Corp

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board recently cleared the LLEDP for bidding. The project aims to provide a high-standard highway that will speed up traffic between the southern part of Metro Manila and Laguna, as well as a dike that would mitigate flooding in the western coastal communities along Laguna Lake.

It also aims to create productive land and create opportunities for developing a new business and residential area on reclaimed land, to enhance regional and urban development. The project has the following components:

- Construction of a 47-kilometer flood control dike from Taguig to Los Banos, on top of which will be a 6-lane expressway, on an off-shore alignment 500 meters away from the western shoreline of Laguna Lake, including interchanges, bridges, floodgates, and pumps; and

- Reclamation of 700 hectares west of and abutting the expressway-dike, separated from the shoreline by a 100-150 meter channel in Taguig and Muntinlupa.

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) said it would resort to a two-stage, two-envelope system for the open solicitation of bids under the Build-Operate-and-Transfer (BOT) Law.

According to this process, bidders are first pre-qualified based on minimum legal, technical and financial requirements set by the DPWH. Those bidders that prequalify would be permitted to submit their bids for the project.

The LLEDP is the fourth PPP project of the DPWH after the P34.5 billion Cavite Laguna Expressway (CALAX), the bidding for which Team Orion topped. Team Orion is a joint venture between the Ayala Group's AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp and Aboitiz Land Inc.

Other DPWH projects under PPP that had been awarded include the P15.5-billion NAIA Expressway and the P1.96-billion Daang Hari-SLEX Link.

- Interaksyon

Tanduay to double exports to the U.S.

The liquor company of tycoon Lucio Tan is boosting its sales to the United States as it prepares to sell its premium rum to the Philippine market.

Tanduay Distillers Inc chief financial officer Nestor Mendones last week said the company targets to double the sales of Tanduay Asian Rum to 3,000 cases in the US this year after selling 1,500 cases last year.

Tanduay is also covering more ground in the US with the addition of 3 to 4 more states that will allow the company to penetrate the lucrative cities of Los Angeles and New York.

"We also plan to sell it locally in select stores. We are just arranging the pricing and some issues because it was approved initially for exports. We will now have a product in the premium segment of the market," Mendones said.

The company’s push to the overseas market is part of its effort to transform Tanduay into a global brand. Established in the Philippines in 1854, Tanduay Rum ranks second behind Bacardi in worldwide sales, according to an AC Nielsen Retail Study in 2011.

Tanduay is banking on its Compañero brandy blend and Tanduay Rum Five Years to surpass last year’s net income after realizing a net loss of P11 million in the first quarter on higher cost of raw materials and expenses.

Tanduay’s net income last year fell 82 percent to P185 million, which included one-time expenses of P105 million arising from the closure of the old plant in Quiapo, Manila.

Tanduay has suffered from declining volumes because of intense competition and higher taxes ushered in by the Sin Tax Reform Law. So far, the company has seen a recovery in sales volumes with figures in April showing a 10 percent year-on-year growth.

Tanduay is part of LT Group, which has interests in banking, tobacco, real estate and beverage.

- Interaksyon