MPIC consolidates toll road business

Infrastructure giant Metro Pacific Investments Corp. ( MPIC) is consolidating its toll road business by merging Tollways Management Corp. (TMC) with the Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC).

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday, MPIC said the board of directors of unit MNTC has approved the merger, with MNTC as the surviving entity.

“As the surviving corporation, MNTC’s corporate exis- tence shall continue and shall acquire all respective rights, businesses, assets and other properties of TMC, and assume all the debts and liabilities of TMC,” MPIC said.

MNTC president and CEO Rodrigo Franco told reporters the merger, which is expected to be completed by March of next year, is seen to result in a stronger company with streamlined processes and better ability to finance and undertake projects.

“We expect, by combining the two, you will have a stronger merged company that will be able to undertake important projects under the concession and the new projects that we’ve recently won,” he said.

The merger of the two firms is up for approval of MNTC shareholders next month.

Apart from shareholder approval, the merger would also require the green light of regulators such as the Philippine Competition Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

For the merger to take place, each TMC stockholder would have the option to receive either common shares of stock of MNTC or non-voting, cumulative, redeemable preferred shares of stock of MNTC with a coupon rate of seven percent, in exchange for all their TMC shares.

The TMC stockholder would get 2.7 MNTC common shares for every TMC share, and 16.63 MNTC preferred shares for every TMC share.

TMC stockholders are not allowed to receive a combination of MNTC common shares and preferred shares.

MNTC is the concessionaire for both the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) and Subic- Clark- Tarlac Expressway projects. It is also one of the original proponents of the connector road project to link NLEX and the South Luzon Expressway.

TMC meanwhile, is engaged in the operations and maintenance of tollways, its facilities, interchanges and related works, among others.

In a related development, MNTC has completed the expansion of the NLEX Bocaue toll barrier to 34 lanes from 26 lanes to cater to the higher traffic volume seen for the holidays.