NOTES ON THE BEAT

This time, on the shoulders of the man who guided PAL through a successful business pivot and Chapter 11 restructuring during the COVID-19 pandemic rests the fate of a potential initial public offering (IPO) of Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC), the tollways unit of conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC).

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“It’s not on the horizon yet. But watch this space. I think we will fix the problem and once we've done that, then we should IPO,” business titan Manuel V. Pangilinan has assured.

Currently burdening MPTC is the high level of debt the company has made following its investments in major projects and acquisitions.

“Our debt position at the parent is quite large. I believe we have the most debt in MPIC, which means our financing costs are high. So I don’t want to be working for the banks. I work for MPIC. And so, I would rather that our excess profits or whatever profits we generate get paid in my parent in MPIC rather than to the banks. Because of that, we have to start thinking about what options we have to be able to do that,” Santa Maria said.

“MPTC is a gigantic debt burden because to build any of these tollways, you'll have to spend tens of billions of pesos, right? However, once the tollway is built, the cash generation from the tollway allows us to cover it. The problem is, if you pile all of these short-term debts up, one on top of another, at the same time, you'll create a situation where the maturities could put stress on us and on our parent companies,” he added.