Ang says PAL airport project to cost $6b

Manila Standard Today
September 29, 2012
By Lailany P. Gomez

San Miguel Corp., which has a 49 percent stake in Philippine Airlines, said Friday it is in talks with taipan Lucio Tan to invest up to $6 billion in a new airport that is expected to replace the Ninoy Aquino International Airport as Manila's main gateway.

San Miguel president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang, however, declined to identify the exact location of the future airport, which he said would take two to three years to build.

He denied reports the new airport would be built in Bulacan province, just north of Metro Manila. "Bulacan is a mountainous area. You cannot put an airport there," Ang told reporters at the sidelines of the PAL Holdings Inc.'s annual stockholders' meeting.

Ang, who is also the president of PAL, said the shareholders of PAL and San Miguel were in talks with the Tan family for the proposed private airport, which will also be opened to other airlines later on.

"This project is between two shareholders - SMC and Lucio Tan family. We will file a disclosure if there's a definite time. We intend to talk to the government to submit in January next year. We are preparing," Ang said.

Ang said the project might cost $5 billion to $6 billion, with $1 billion to $2 billion representing the equity to be infused by each party.

PAL Holdings, the holdings company of Philippine Airlines, may voluntarily delist from the Philippine Stock Exchange by the end of the year, as the company may not be able to comply with the minimum float requirement. Only 2.3 percent of PAL Holdings Inc.'s shares are held by the public.

"We have no choice but to comply with the 10-percent minimum public float, because we will not be able to reach the timeline for us to be able to do another round [of share sale]," Ang said.

"We will not let the PSE to delist us, because it's not good for us. We are taking the option of doing it voluntarily to avoid hassle. Before the end of the year, we will delist," Ang said.

Ang said PAL was focusing on its refleeting program. "In fact, we signed two weeks ago with Airbus for additional 10 wide-body A330 on top of the 54 aircraft we bought earlier. We are still in talks with the aircraft manufacturers," Ang said.

The list price for each A330 was $250 million or $2.5 billion for all the 10 planes on top of the $7 billion earlier signed with Airbus, Ang said.