Metro Pacific eyes new expressway project in Indonesia

Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC) is targeting a new expressway project in Jakarta, Indonesia that is awaiting regulatory approval, its top official said.

“We cannot announce it yet. But there’s a new project that we have submitted a proposal of to the government, through our Indonesian company, and it’s being negotiated. Hopefully, it will be finalized soon,” MPTC President and Chief Executive Officer Rodrigo E. Franco told reporters recently. 

The elevated expressway project will be via Indonesia’s public-private partnership scheme and will be under MPTC’s Indonesian unit. 

“I cannot disclose [how much the project cost will be] but it’s a big project,” Mr. Franco said. 

Mr. Franco said that he expects the more than 20-kilometer road project to be awarded within the year, as it has been being discussed for “some time already.”

“We expect this project to be finalized this year assuming that the government will approve it because it is not yet formally approved,” he added.

Mr. Franco said that MPTC’s tollway network in Indonesia is the largest among its portfolio, as it caters to 1.4 million daily motorists.

“In Indonesia, in our tolling network — because there is a different tolling system in Indonesia, it’s a network — approximately, we have 1.4 million traffic every day and here in the Philippines we have around 600,000,” Mr. Franco said.

For 2023, Mr. Franco said MPTC is expecting significant improvements as traffic recovers and with the opening of its new roads.

“We expect more significant improvements from 2022 as traffic further grows and as we open new roads — NLEX Connector, Subsection 4 in CALAX (Cavite–Laguna Expressway), and the second section of NLEX Connector — we have new roads, and that will add to the traffic,” he said. 

“Year on year, we are kind of looking at around 20% growth. I wouldn’t know the exact numbers right now, but definitely double-digit growth,” he said about the expected growth of traffic and revenues.

In 2022, the tollway group’s revenues reached more than P22.9 billion.

“I think last year, the toll revenue was over P20 billion, so I think yes around 20% growth for this year,” he added. 

MPTC is the tollways unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., one of three key Philippine units of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., the others being Philex Mining Corp. and PLDT Inc.

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