Sabin Aboitiz, the CEO of Aboitiz Equity Ventures [AEV 37.30, up 0.8%; 68% avgVol] [link] said that they’re “looking into” putting in a bid to manage and operate the Davao International Airport (DIA). Mr. Aboitiz said that it will “[depend] on the terms”, and that AEV is waiting on the government to provide the terms of reference for the bid. According to AEV, the government wants to conduct a solicited auction, not the unsolicited procedure that was popularized under the Duterte administration.
MB bottom-line: The DIA is our third-largest airport by passenger volume. Since losing out on its bid to rehab our biggest airport (NAIA), AEV has pivoted to becoming a regional airport powerhouse through its acquisition of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport from Megawide, its recent win of the concession to operate the sixth-largest airport (in CDO), and it’s interest in winning concessions to operate several other airports in the Philippine top 20. This push to operate DIA would give it a sizeable chunk of the country’s annual passenger volume. Based on my back-of-the-envelope math, they’ve already got around 14% of the marketshare by passenger volume. Bagging DIA would push them up into the 20% range. Considering NAIA itself is 60% of the market, that’s a pretty big piece of the pie (if they can swing it).
Merkado Barkada is a free daily newsletter on the PSE, investing and business in the Philippines. You can subscribe to the newsletter or follow on Twitter to receive the full daily updates.
Be the first to comment