MANILA, Philippines—The Lopez-led First Philippine Holdings Corp. has expressed interest in participating in various projects under the Aquino administration's public-private-partnership (PPP) program, according to a ranking company official.
In a chance interview on Wednesday, First Holdings president and COO Elpidio L. Ibañez said that the company, in particular, was keen on infrastructure and power projects, in line with the Lopez group's existing businesses.
Ibañez, however, said that they were not submitting any unsolicited proposals. Instead, they would rather wait for the government's announcements and then bid for such potential projects, he added.
So far, the National Economic and Development Authority has identified for rollout next year 10 PPP projects worth an estimated P170 billion.
These include the P70-billion Metro Railway Transit/Light Railway Transit expansion project; the P11.3-billion MRT Line 2 extension; the P7.54-billion new Bohol airport; the P36-billion Puerto Princesa airport; the P21-billion NLEx-SLEx link expressway; the P10.5-billion Cavite-Laguna expressway (Manila side section), and the P3.08-billion Daraga international airport.
Also in the list are the development of a city terminal for the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport, the privatization of the Laguindingan Airport operation and maintenance, and the supply of treated bulk water for Metro Manila, but costs for these projects have yet to be finalized.
Ibañez also disclosed that the company has bought back some P300 million of its own shares from the open market, in barely a month after it started to do so.
Ibañez explained that this was part of the company's buyback program, in which it had earmarked P6 billion to purchase company shares over the next two years.
First Holdings earlier said that its buyback program was “intended to strike a balance between enhancing the company’s capital structure and maintaining its ability to fund future growth and investments.”
According to the company, it opts for buyback transactions if the company stock is substantially undervalued, when there is high volatility in share prices or in any instance where a buyback would improve shareholder value.
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