Financing for the Mactan Cebu International Airport

March 8, 2016

SyCipLaw acted as Philippine counsel to a syndicate of Philippine banks (composed of BDO Unibank, Inc., Bank of the Philippine Islands, Development Bank of the Philippines, Land Bank of the Philippines, Metropolitan Bank & Trust Company and Philippine National Bank) and Asian Development Bank for the financing of the rehabilitation and development of the Mactan Cebu International Airport that was awarded by the DOTC and the MCIAA under the private-public partnership program of the government to the consortium between Megawide Construction Corporation and GMR Infrastructure. The financing is composed of (1) Php20 Billion (approx. US$446,773,200) commitment of the Philippines syndicate banks and (2) US$75 Million commitment of ADB.

The Mactan Cebu International Airport is important and strategic infrastructure for the Philippines. It is located in the province of Cebu, considered the gateway to central Philippines and a popular tourist destination. The province is the second most important economic center in the country and the second most populated province. The airport PPP project, estimated to cost Php33.3bn (US$740m), is timely as the existing facility is already overstretched. It involves construction of a new passenger Terminal 2 and renovation of the existing passenger Terminal 1, the operation and maintenance of both terminals, construction and operation of aprons, ground handling, daily slot management and bay allocation.

The SyCipLaw team was composed of partner Marievic G. Ramos-Anoñuevo, senior associate Bhong Paulo A. Macasaet and associate Aldous Benjamin C. Camiso.

To date, the project was awarded as “Asia-Pacific Transport Deal of the Year” at Thomson Reuters’ Project Finance International (PFI) Awards 2015 and “Asia Pacific PPP Deal of the Year” at the Euromoney-IJGlobal Awards 2015.