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By Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo Reporter
A LARGE number of investors,
majority of which are foreign groups, have expressed interest to
participate in the bidding for the Philippines’ lone nationwide
transmission grid.
In a statement, state-run Power
Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM), which is
tasked to privatize the government’s assets, said 21 groups sent
their respective letters expressing interest to participate in the
bidding for the 25-year concession of the National Transmission
Corp. (TransCo) before the August 24 deadline.
Of the 21 interested parties,
nine come from the Philippines, and nine from other Asian countries,
including Hong Kong (four), Malaysia (one), China (one), Singapore
(two) and India (one). The three other groups are from Spain, the
Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
As a prerequisite to receiving
the TransCo bidding package, the investor groups were required to
sign a confidentiality agreement and pay a nonrefundable
participation fee of $5,000. The package includes the bidding
procedures for the TransCo privatization, information memoranda, and
the data room and due diligence procedures.
PSALM is finalizing the draft
transaction documents, which will be made available to bidders on
Friday. Interested bidders can submit the documents for the
prequalification stage. The prequalification submission deadline is
12 noon on September 21. The bidding date is set on December 12.
Jose C. Ibazeta, PSALM president,
said deadlines for the submission of pertinent documents and other
requirements can be moved if and when necessary, but not the bidding
date.
“The bidding components may be
changed, but there will be no compromise on the 12 December bidding
date for the TransCo concession,” he earlier said.
Bidders for the TransCo
concession must have a member or affiliate with experience in
operating and maintaining electricity transmission systems
comparable to that of the Philippines, with at least 6,000 circuit
kilometers, and a minimum 6,000 megawatts peak demand.
The member of the prospective
bidder who meets the technical prequalification criteria must have a
net asset value or market capitalization of $500 million.
Bidders should also have the
capability to form a concessionaire that will meet the 60 percent
Filipino ownership restrictions for grantees of a public utility
franchise. The largest foreign and Filipino members of the
prospective bidder will also need to pass a net asset value market
capitalization test.
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