Metro Pacific open to more partnerships with Indonesian firm

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) is open to expanding its partnership with Indonesian infrastructure holding firm PT Nusantara Infrastructure Tbk in other infrastructure sectors including water and energy following the tie-up forged for tollways.

Rodrigo Franco, president and chief executive officer of MPIC’s tollway arm Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC), said in a press conference yesterday the infrastructure conglomerate is interested in looking at other opportunities in the infrastructure space with Nusantara Infrastructure.

 “While the company that’s formally involved in the investment is MPTC, it will not stop us from asking our other companies within the group to also look at opportunities with Nusantara Infrastructure. So if there is an opportunity for instance in the water sector, we will ask our water sector sister company to look at the opportunity. The lead is the tollways group, but it won’t prevent us from bringing in other companies within the group in discussions for further investment, partnerships with Nusantara Infrastructure,” Franco said.

Apart from tollways, MPIC is engaged in water through Maynilad Water Holding Co. Inc., power generation through Manila Electric Co. and Global Business Power Corp., hospitals through Metro Pacific Hospital Holdings Inc., rails through Metro Pacific Light Rail Corp. and logistics through MetroPac Logistics Co. Inc.

Nusantara Infrastructure chief executive officer Muhammad Ramdani Basri said there are many opportunities in infrastructure in Indonesia where the company could work further with MPIC.

 “It’s not just toll road. There’s a lot of opportunity. We can discuss with our partner which one is going to benefit the company and also the people and after that, we can decide what sector we can focus on,” he said.

Earlier this week, MPTC announced it has increased its  stake in Nusantara Infrastructure through the acquisition by PT Metro Pacific Tollways Indonesia of about 6.6 billion shares of Nusantara Infrastructure for P6.9 billion from PT Matahari Kapital Indonesia.

Following the transaction, MPTC now holds 48.27 percent of the total  issued capital stock of Nusantara Infrastructure on a fully-diluted basis.

Indonesia Minister for National Development Planning Bambang Brodjonegoro said in the same event the Indonesian government is currently pushing infrastructure development to help drive economic growth.