Infra major GMR Airports is one of the front runners for USD 3 billion redevelopment bid of Ninoy Aquino International Airport at Manilla.
The other two bidders are San Miguel Corporation- conglomerate from the Philippines and the Manila International Airport Consortium (MIAC). GMR’s consortium also includes Cavitex Infrastructure Corporation- an infrastructure company from the Philippines and House of Investments which is the Yuchengo family office which operates Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation- one of the largest banks in Philippines.
The bid results will be announced on February 14.
As per the Philippine transportation department, the project involves upgrading of terminals, increasing capacity to up to 62 million passengers annually, and improving technology infrastructure.
The winning bidder now will operate and maintain the airport, with the capacity to be doubled after the upgrade to around 60 million passengers per annum. The concession period will run for 25 years
The GMR led group has offered a 33.30% share for the government, according to the Department of Transportation of Philippines. San Miguel Consortium, which also includes South Korea’s Incheon International Airport Corp., offered the highest 82.2% share.
Ferdinand Marcos Jr, and his government, encourage public-private partnerships (PPPs) and have developed a strategy for Philippine airports as the revival of the travel and tourism industry continues after the COVID-19 pandemic.
On January 16, in a blog on its website, digital rights organisation Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) said it had written “to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, NITI Aayog, Airports Authority of India, Digi Yatra Foundation and the Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Kochi, and Hyderabad regional airports, bringing their attention to the worrisome implementation of the Digi Yatra service across airports in India”.
If GMR Group’s bid is successful, it will be the firm’s third airport project in the Philippines. In 2014, it won the tender to develop and operate the Mactan-Cebu International Airport, and in 2019 it was awarded the project to expand Clark International Airport. This will also be the largest international airport the group will develop outside India, where it is the airport operator in the capital Delhi.Saurabh Chawla, Executive Director (Finance & Corporate Strategy), GMR Group recently said that the group plans to continue operations both domestically and internationally.
