Sta. Lucia Land adds nearly 180 hectares to landbank

LISTED developer Sta. Lucia Land, Inc. on Friday said it entered into 16 new joint venture agreements and acquired several properties outside Metro Manila, in line with plans to purchase up to 1,000 hectares (ha) of land this year.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange, Sta. Lucia said the new partnerships allowed it to expand its landbank by 142.33 hectares (ha) in Davao, Rizal, Pasig, Batangas and Laguna.
The company also acquired a total of 34.53 hectares in the provinces of Batangas and Iloilo.
“This is a testament to the continuing commitment of the company in focusing its projects in emerging and growing cities nationwide,” Sta. Lucia said.
Some of the projects are “extensions of existing developments,” such as Ponte Verde in Davao, Greenwoods Executive in Pasig, Metropolis East in Rizal, Golden Meadows in Laguna and Metropolis in Iloilo.
“We have new acquisitions almost every quarter. This year, we want to acquire up to 500 ha to 1,000 ha of land,” Sta. Lucia Chief Financial Officer David M. Dela Cruz said in a phone interview yesterday.
Asked about the joint venture model, he explained: “For example, we’re offered a 100-hectare lot and we develop it into 1,000 saleable lots. The ownership could be 50-50 or 60-40. The partner’s contribution is the land, and ours is development. We split the development according to the agreement.”
Originally incorporated in 1996 as Zipporah Mining and Industrial Corp., Sta. Lucia changed its primary purpose to that of a real estate company in 1996. Its portfolio consists of horizontal and vertical properties across the country, as well as a shopping mall in Cainta — the Sta. Lucia East Grand Mall.
Shares in the company shed two centavos or 2.35% to end the week at 83 centavos apiece. —with report from Krista Angela Montealegre

Auction set for biggest PPP deal to date

BID SUBMISSION for the country’s most expensive public-private partnership (PPP) deal rolled out so far has been set on July 6, after the government cleared three of four parties that sought to qualify for the auction, a key official of Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) said on Sunday.

DPWH PPP Service Director and Officer-in-Charge Ariel C. Angeles said in a telephone interview that the agency’s Pre-qualification Bids and Awards Committee (PBAC) has qualified three of the four groups that submitted pre-qualification documents for the P122.8-billion Laguna Lakeshore Expressway Dike Project (LLEDP) last Feb. 27.

The three qualified groups are:

• Trident Infrastructure and Development Corp., or “Team Trident,” composed of Ayala Land, Inc.; Megaworld Corp.; Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc.; and SM Prime Holdings, Inc.;

• San Miguel Holdings Corp.; and

• Alloy Pavi Hanshin LLEDP Consortium, composed of Malaysia’s Alloy MTD Capital BHD; Prime Asset Ventures, Inc.; and South Korea’s Hanshin Engineering Construction Company Ltd.

“Submission of technical and financial bids will be on July 6. Only Team Trident, San Miguel and Alloy-PAVI Hanshin Group can participate in the actual bidding, because it was only the three of them that have been qualified,” Mr. Angeles said.

The Rainbow Consortium — which is composed of Rainbow Holdings, Inc.; Pt Nusa Konstrukti Enjiniring TbK (NKE); the No. 4 Metallurgical Construction Company of China Ltd. (4MCC); Shindong-Ah Construction Company Ltd. (SCC); Korea Expressway Corp. (KEC); Santa Lucia Land, Inc.; Dong Myeong Engineering Consultants and Architecture Company Ltd., and Kunhwa Engineering and Consulting Company Ltd. — failed to make the cut.

“There were too many and major deficiencies in their qualification documents, such as the group wasn’t able to submit the operations and maintenance part, also its English translation is incomplete,” the head of DPWH PPP Service replied when asked why Rainbow Consortium was disqualified.

Should the Rainbow Consortium appeal its disqualification, Mr. Angeles said the group has to pay to DPWH a protest fee amounting to 0.5% of project cost, or about P6.14 billion.

Sought for comment, Sta. Lucia Chief Financial Officer David M. Dela Cruz said in a telephone interview yesterday: “It’s sad that we’re disqualified, but the consortium is led by Rainbow Holdings, so whether the group will appeal or not, we’ll leave that decision to Rainbow.”

The official notice of pre-qualification, according to Mr. Angeles, should be released by March 24.

“The ITPB (instructions to prospective bidders) and draft of concession agreement will be released next week, and then after that, one-on-one meetings with the three qualified groups will be conducted,” Mr. Angeles added yesterday.

The P122.8-billion PPP deal is targeted to be awarded on Aug. 21, the DPWH last month said, adding that signing of concession agreement is set on Sept. 20.

Of 24 groups that bought pre-qualification documents since the project’s rollout in December last year, only four submitted prequalification documents for the 37-year contract to build:

• a 47-kilometer (km) expressway between Taguig City and Los Baños, Laguna and a 45-km flood-control dike for P64.914 billion under a build-transfer-operate arrangement, as well as

• reclaim around 700 hectares of land in Taguig and Muntinlupa cities abutting the road-dike for some P57.897 billion under a build-transfer scheme.

Other parties that bought documents but no longer sought to be qualified for the auction were Mega Express Road and Development Corp.; Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC); Muhibbah Engineering Bhd of Malaysia; JV Power and Wealth Corp.; Minerales Industrias Corp.; GT Capital Holdings, Inc.; Leighton Contractors of Australia; Egis Projects SA of France; LT Group, Inc.; the D.M. Wenceslao Group’s Laguna Lakeshore Consortium; Filinvest Land, Inc.; Macquarie Securities (Phil), Inc.; Megawide Construction Corp.; JG Summit Holdings, Inc.; PT Star Line of Indonesia; State Properties Corp.; VINCI Concessions of France; and IL & FS Transportation Networks Ltd. of India.

The Joint Foreign Chambers of the Philippines, in its fourth annual assessment released last March 3 on government progress in addressing key business constraints, noted of the PPP that “[a]fter a slow start, the Aquino administration is making significant progress.” Nine PPP deals have been awarded since the flagship infrastructure program was launched in 2010: P3.15-billion Integrated Transport System-Southwest Terminal project; P34.44-billion Mactan-Cebu International Airport Passenger Terminal Building; P44.65-billion LRT Line 1 Cavite Extension and Operations and Maintenance; P2.24-billion Automatic Fare Collection System; P2.24-billion Daang Hari-South Luzon Expressway Link Road; P23.90-billion Ninoy Aquino International Airport Expressway (Phase II); P16.28-billion first phase of the PPP for School Infrastructure Project (PSIP); PSIP’s P3.86-billion second phase; and P5.62-billion Philippine Orthopedic Center modernization.

3 groups prequalify for Laguna Lakeshore Expressway PPP project

MANILA – Three groups have prequalified for the Aquino administration’s biggest public-private partnership (PPP) project to date, with a fourth still under evaluation.

The P122.8-billion Laguna Lakeshore Expressway and Dike (LLED) Project is the most ambitious PPP venture so far, involving the construction of a flood control dike, an expressway on top of it, and the reclamation of over 700 hectares of land for commercial development.

“Initially, 3 were found to be prequalified, namely Trident, San Miguel Holdings and Alloy MTD,” Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Undersecretary Rafael Yabut told Interaksyon.com.

Team Trident is composed of Trident Infrastructure and Development Corporation, Ayala Land Inc, Megaworld Corporation, Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc, and SM Prime Holdings Inc.

The Alloy-Pavi Hanshin LLEDP Consortium consists of Malaysia’s Alloy MTD Capital Berhad, Prime Asset Ventures Inc, and Hanshin Engineering Construction.

Yabut said DPWH is still evaluating Rainbow Group, which initially was disqualified after it submitted prequalification documents that failed to comply with the agency’s requirements.

He expects to complete the evaluation of the Rainbow Group on Monday.

The Rainbow Group is composed of Rainbow Holdings Inc, Pt. Nusa Konstrukski Enjiniring Tbk (NKE), The No. 4 Metallurgical Constn. Company of China Ltd. (4MCC), Shindong-Ah Constn. Company Ltd. (SCC), Korea Expressway Corporation (KEC), Sta. Lucia Land Inc (SLI), Kunhwa Engineering & Consulting Company Ltd. and Dong Myeong Engineering Consultants & Architecture Company Ltd.

Prequalified bidders have until July 6 to submit their technical and financial proposals. Technical proposals will be evaluated between July 7 and 26, while the financial proposals will be examined between July 27 and August 10.

The DPWH aims to award the project on August 21 and sign the concession agreement on September 20.

The LLED concession will last 37 years, including 7 years for design and construction and 30 years for operation and maintenance. It will be financed mainly by private capital with no government subsidy, except for right-of-way costs.

The LLED is the fourth PPP project of the DPWH after the P34.5 billion Cavite Laguna Expressway (CALAX), the bidding for which Team Orion, a joint venture between AC Infrastructure Holdings Corporation and Aboitiz Land Inc, topped. The government, however, decided to rebid the CALAX, after San Miguel Corporation’s Optimal Infrastructure Development Inc successfully challenged its disqualification.

Other DPWH projects under PPP that had been awarded include the P15.5-billion NAIA Expressway and the P1.96-billion Daang Hari-SLEX Link.