Biz Buzz: Super consortium shapes up

How can seven of the country’s biggest conglomerates— some of which are ‘frenemies’—work together to rehabilitate, operate and maintain the highly congested international gateway to Metro Manila? The key seems to be for each to accept a relatively small and equally sized piece of the pie and let their foreign partner take the lead and get a much larger stake than any of them.

Changi Airport Consultants Pte. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Changi Airports International Pte. Ltd., has been handpicked by the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) super consortium to provide technical support in relation to their unsolicited proposal to rehabilitate and expand Naia. Biz Buzz heard that the Singaporean airport operator will get a 30-percent stake in the super consortium whereas each of the seven conglomerates will have only 10 percent.

The local partners are Aboitiz InfraCapital Inc., Ayalas’ AC Infrastructure Holdings Corp., Andrew Tan- led Alliance Global Group Inc., Lucio

Tan- led Asia’s Emerging Dragon Corp., Gotianun-led Filinvest Development Corp., Gokongwei-led JG Summit Holdings Inc. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. Two of these have airline interests—JG Summit and Lucio Tan—while the rest are all property and/or infrastructure developers.

For each of the super consortium members, it’s not the size of their share that matters but the need to make a difference because Naia's woes affect everyone. “It's because we can really use whatever expertise is there in the world to come up with the best solution, from not just one but many,” said a consortium member.

This consortium member also clarified that the group was not against the Bulacan airport project of San Miguel Corp., which has obtained original proponent status from the government.

“While waiting for Bulacan to happen, we need to grow the capacity of Naia,” the member said.

Naia is so heavily congested because it was designed to accommodate only 30 million passengers annually but it is now serving 42 million and arrivals are projected to reach 55 million by 2022 or 2023. Both Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific are expanding their fleet, and thus, they want to see the Naia rehabilitation happen in order to secure additional landing and take-off slots.

Years ago, when airports hit their operating capacity, it was easy to acquire land to build a new runway, the source said. But with rising urbanization, airports had no choice but to operate more efficiently in terms of air traffic movement (ATM).

“So, if you say you have 60 ATMs, that means doing one take-off or landing every minute. Nobody has done that but Gatwick (airport south of central London) is doing 55, Mumbai is doing 55 with one runway and we’re only doing 40,” the source said. “To make that happen, it’s not just about equipment. It’s a whole slew of things that need to happen together simultaneously —air coordination, aircraft sequencing.”

As such, the super consortium (which as we all know, is facing prospective competition from a “mega consortium” comprising Megawide Construction Corp. and the Social Security System—vows to soon come up with a “fantastic” comprehensive solution for Naia. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA

Doctorate for ‘Mr. Fix It’

He’s been honored by his alma mater before, but former Finance Secretary Jose “Titoy”

Pardo is set to receive tomorrow the biggest honor from the De La Salle University yet.

Biz Buzz heard the leadership of DLSU has decided to confer upon Pardo—who is al- so the current chair of the Philippine Stock Exchange—an honorary doctorate for his work in the world of finance.

The Doctor of Science degree will be awarded to him in a ceremony at the Philippine International Convention Center on Saturday morning.

The university is expected to honor Pardo for his invaluable work not only for his service as secretary of finance but also for the years he served as secretary of trade and industry under the Estrada administration.

Just as important, of course, is the role “Titoy” has played behind the scenes in many major issues this country has faced on the economic and business, and even political fronts.

That’s because he is one of those few personalities who all sides of the business and political elite genuinely trust to serve as an honest broker of ideas when difficult problems between parties our business groups needs to be sorted out — a genuine “Mr. Fix It” with little or no agenda.

Of course, Pardo is also the chair of DLSU’s board of trustees where he serves with fellow business luminaries like Net Group chair Carlos Rufino, former Pilipinas Shell Petroleum chair Edgar Chua and Phinma president and CEO

Ramon del Rosario Jr.

We heard that more of Pardo’s influential friends in political and business circles will take time off from their Saturday schedules to celebrate his newly minted doctorate with him at the Makati Diamond Residences right after. Nice. —DAXIM L. LUCAS

‘The new BMW’

There’s a new BMW in the country. And in more ways than one.

We are, of course, talking about the new BMW X3 sport utility vehicle which will be officially launched tomorrow in a glitzy affair at the Bonifacio High Street Central Amphitheater on Friday evening.

The 2018 model of one of the German luxury carmaker’s most popular product lines is widely anticipated in the country for several reasons.

Queues are forming among loyal BMW buyers for two variants of the SUV (or “SAV”—sport activity vehicle —as the brand wants to call it). The all-new BMW X3 xDrive20d xLine is available at P4.39 million while the xDrive20d M Sport is priced at P4.59 million. Not a problem for fanboys of the marque, we understand.

But that auto industry is also watching closely how BMW Philippines will perform under its new owners.

Recall, of course, that tycoon Ramon Ang of San Miguel Corp. formally took control of BMW late last year from fellow businessman Jose “Pepito” Al

varez and people have been wondering since then how the former will run the firm and what he will do to capture a bigger slice of the country's growing pie for luxury vehicles.

A lot of that will depend on the new management and marketing thrust that ‘ RSA’ has brought in, including former Lexus Manila sales chief

Spencer Yu who will now help remodel the brand’s overall market strategy with an eye on boosting sales.

So people will be watching closely how the new BMW X3 sells, and how BMW Philippines (officially named SMC Asia Car Distributors Corp.) will be doing. Abangan!