Megawide starts P3.5-B integrated transport terminal

MANILA, Philippines - Megawide Construction Corp. is set to start the construction of the P3.5 billion Southwest Integrated Transport System (SWITS) in the fourth quarter of the year.

SWITS, located along the Cavite Expressway in Paranaque City, is a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project that is seen to help decongest the worsening Metro Manila traffic that reportedly costs the economy P3 billion per day, Megawide chairman Michael Cosiquien said.

“Megawide looks forward to sharing its experience in other proposed PPP projects,” he said.

Now in its 19th year, Megawide is already a diversified engineering firm currently building on its credential as an infrastructure developer, pursuing a strategic roadmap that will not only ensure a strong source of recurring revenues in the long term, but also contribute to nation-building.

In his message to shareholders during the company’s annual stockholders meeting yesterday, Cosiquien said the company is also on-track with the construction of Terminal 2 of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA), which will increase the airport’s overall capacity to 12.5 million passengers per annum (MPPA) once completed.

Despite a design capacity of only 4.5 MPPA, the existing Terminal 1 efficiently accommodated almost 8 million passengers in 2015 through improvements and changes in the flow of passengers that consequently reduced congestion.

Megawide, together with Bangalore-based partner GMR Infrastructure Limited, took over operations of the MCIA in November 2014.

“MCIA is expected to redefine the aviation industry in the country and provide a positive perception on Philippine airports in the global market. At the same time, our achievements at the achievements at the MCIA provide a creditable platform from which we create a broader business base, and which shields Megawide from over-reliance on any one market,” Cosiquien said.

Megawide went public in February 2011 with a net income of P750 million and has since grown 14.5 percent on a compounded annual growth rate basis. In 2012, a year after the IPO, the Company’s net income grew by 35 percent, followed by another 38 percent in 2013.