Megawide [MWIDE] might retest NAIA rehab waters with new administration

In an ABS-CBN article, Megawide [MWIDE 6.70 DOWN 1.18%] said that it may take another shot at submitting a bid for the NAIA Rehab project with the new administration, depending on the candidate that wins.

MWIDE also said that the company has spoken with the possible candidates for president, and came out of those talks with the overall feeling that the crop of candidates was pro-transportation infra development, and that we should “expect more infra transport projects from these presidentiables”.

Interestingly, MWIDE seemed to imply that there is at least one candidate that would consider a total shutdown of NAIA: “We'll just wait for the next administration. If the direction of the next administration is to keep NAIA or to close NAIA then that would change the viability”.

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MWIDE joins ABS-CBN [ABS 13.28 UP 4.73%] on the list of large firms waiting for a change of weather at the Palace, and it remains to be seen whether the Department of Finance’s concerns over MWIDE’s capitalization persist even with a new administration that is interested in rehabilitating NAIA.

MWIDE has done a pretty good job of filling its schedule with several small- and medium-sized projects while waiting for a potential NAIA megaproject, so it will also be interesting to see if MWIDE has the capacity to complete these projects while also scaling up to tackle the NAIA Rehab if that were to come to fruition.

Putting on my tinfoil hat, though, I’m very interested in the implication that there may be at least one candidate that supports outright closure of NAIA instead of rehabilitation; this aligns with the rumors that I’d heard from contacts at ADB regarding the original CCCC / MacroAsia [MAC 5.38 DOWN 5.61%] bid for the Sangley Point International Airport project.

Those rumors said that CCCC was interested in Sangley Point on the condition that CCCC would also win the concession for operations of Sangley Point, and that NAIA be shutdown to force the maximal flow of passengers through the CCCC-controlled airport. Interesting.

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