MPIC selling up to 20% stake in tollways unit

MANILA, Philippines — Expressway giant Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC), a company 93.3 percent owned by conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), is raising fresh capital with the entry of a new investor.

MPIC chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said the company is selling as much as a 20-percent stake in MPTC to raise funds for debt payments.

Pangilinan said the sale could raise several billions for the company.

“The main use will be the reduction of debts MPTC has,” he said.

Pangilinan declined to identify the potential investors the group is in talks with but said it is now “down to one.”

“We’re down to the short strokes,” he said.

Pangilinan expects the deal to close “in the next two months.”

Earlier this year, Pangilinan said that MPTC is eyeing to raise P30 billion to P50 billion in 2025 through the sale of new shares, proceeds of which will be used for debt payments.

In late 2024, Mit-Pacific, a joint venture between Mitsui & Co. Ltd. and Japan Overseas Infrastructure Investment Corp. for Transport & Urban Development, swapped part of its stake in MPIC for 6.6 percent of MPTC.

The transaction, which closed in January, reduced MPIC’s stake to 93.3 percent of MPTC from 99.9 percent.

In the Philippines, MPTC handles the North Luzon Expressway, Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, Manila-Cavite Expressway, Cavite-Laguna Expressway and Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway.

In September 2024, MPTC and its subsidiary, PT Margautama Nusantara, in partnership with Warrington Investment Pte. Ltd., acquired a 35-percent equity interest in PT Jasamarga Transjawa Tol for approximately $960.3 million.

JTT manages and operates the Trans Java Toll Road Segments in Java, Indonesia, which has a total length of 676 kilometers. MPTC effectively owns 22.9 percent of JTT.