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A consortium comprising GMR Infrastructure Ltd and Megawide Construction Corp of the Philippines has emerged as the highest bidder to develop an airport project in the Southeast Asian country under the public-private partnership (PPP) mode.
The consortium pipped six major players and their partners, including Changi Airports International Pte of Singapore, Zurich Airport and Incheon International Airport Corp of South Korea, by offering a premium on top of the development cost.
“While it is a fact that our consortium has been declared the highest bidder for the project, it will take about a week to declare the successful developer.
The project is being taken up with leading local infrastructure company Megawide. According to permissible norms, we will have a 40 per cent stake in the project,” Sidharath Kapur, Chief Financial Officer of Airports Business, GMR Infra, told Business Line .
“Our bid was about 2.7-2.8 per cent higher than the next bid and shows that the efficiency at which we could successfully manage to become the top bidder for the project.”
The overall project is likely to cost about $320 million (around Rs 1,980 crore today).
The 25-year concession will enable the consortium to operate central Philippines’ Mactan-Cebu International Airport, the country’s second biggest, apart from building another terminal which will serve as a regional hub.
The project envisages development of an airport terminal that can accommodate 25 million passengers a year. The existing terminal has a capacity to handle 4.5 million passengers, but now handles a much bigger passenger flow.
GMR operates and maintains airports at New Delhi, Hyderabad and another one in Istanbul.
MULLS IPO Asked if there was any proposal to tap the market for the airports business, the CFO said: “While this is being contemplated, the company has not taken any decision on this as yet.”
A recent report mentioned that GMR has hired four banks, including Citibank, to manage the listing of its airports business and possibly raise up to $300-350 million.
>rishikumar.vundi@thehindu.co.in
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