GMR-Megawide consortium, which is engaged in operations and further developing the Mactan-Cebu International Airport in the Philippines, is now in the race with five others to acquire management operations for five other airports in the Philippines.

The deal valued at about $2.4 billion has come up for bids under the Public Private Partnership mode.

According to a statement in the Philippines Government Public-Private Partnership Center site, since the projects were rolled out on December 15, 2014, by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), six groups have applied to pre-qualify and bid.

These include GMR-Megawide, Metro-Pacific – JG Summit Consortium, Aboitiz Equity Ventures, San Miguel Corp., Philippine Skylanders Inc., and Union Equities.

The prospective bidders have time until July 27 to submit pre-qualification requirements for the bundled airport projects under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) programme.

Foreign and local investors are invited to pre-qualify and bid in the five regional airport PPP projects.

These include Bacolod-Silay, Iloilo (Bundle 1), Davao, Laguindingan, and New Bohol (Panglao) (Bundle 2) with an estimated cost of $2.40 billion.

According to the release on the site, these PPP projects involve the development, operations and maintenance of the five regional airports.

The PPP mode contracts expect private partner to provide additional facilities and improvements to enhance passenger safety, security and cargo movement efficiency as well as actively market the airports.

GMR Megawide Cebu Airport Corp, a joint venture between GMR Infrastructure and Megawide Construction Corp of the Philippines, began construction of Mactan-Cebu International Airport Terminal 2. It is expected to be complete by 2018.

The contract to expand and modernise Mactan-Cebu airport is for 25 years.

GMR Infra took over the responsibility of the airport operations on November 1, 2014.

Related Topics