Biz Buzz: Bidders or dummies?

While a good deal of people reflected over whether they ever subjected their household help to “yaya meals,” a quiet development occurred recently in the rebidding for the Cavite Laguna Expressway public-private partnership (PPP) deal.

It appears that another entity—Gatmaitan Yap Patacsil Gutierrez & Protacio—has acquired bid documents for Calax, bringing the number of “interested” groups to four, apart from San Miguel Corp., Manuel V. Pangilinan’s Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and business consultancy firm Reyes Tacandong & Co.

It’s quite clear that, apart from SMC and Metro Pacific, the two other companies that bought bid documents did so on behalf of other groups.

The question now is, who are they?

Our government insiders have their suspicions, based on clues littered about. In fact, perhaps a bit anticlimactically, they think these are either current bidders or groups that had previously joined but decided that Calax wasn’t for them.

We’ll get to the why in a bit, but recall that it costs a lot more to bid for Calax compared to a year ago. After the drama that played out in round 1, a participant must now need to shell out at least P20.1 billion as a floor bid for a chance to win the toll road deal, which costs another P35.4 billion to build.

With that in mind, Biz Buzz insiders were struck, for example, at how the representative of Reyes Tacandong & Co. was very “confident” in their meetings and had very few clarifications and questions.

A new bidder, they felt, might have been a bit more inquisitive, given the amount of money involved.

You might be wondering why an existing participant would get another group to also buy bid documents. It could be that this player is really keen on Calax and was concerned it would be the lone group to express interest, which might prompt the government to call for a failed bid.

Unlikely, but it may be that it just wants to be on the safe side, right?

As for the second type, our insiders suspect this is a group that isn’t planning to join again—either out of principle, the lack of a solid business case, or maybe both—but they want to see the new terms all the same.

In any case, it shouldn’t have cost them too much money since bid documents were modestly priced at P100,000 each. We should know more when actual bids are submitted on May 19 this year.  Miguel R. Camus

Good problem

The Philippine summer is sizzling, and many are taking that as a cue to hit the beach or maybe travel to a cooler locale—Japan, mostly, if “selfies” posted on our social media accounts were to serve as basis.

That leaves a happy problem for the family that started Park ‘N Fly, a business that serves short-term or even longer term air travellers by providing a secure venue for their cars while they go about their business out of town. It’s especially attractive since clients can avail themselves of a range of car maintenance and cleaning services while they’re away.

So good was this idea that they expanded the original business, which was originally a multilevel building near the Naia complex, with another building nearby, which pushed up their total capacity to well more than 1,000 cars.

Richard Limcaco, whose family runs Park ’N Fly, told Biz Buzz recently that it was difficult to keep up with the demand, even with their expanded capacity. There are simply too many people traveling, with no small boost coming from corporate clientele.

While it took a lot of vision to start an establishment like Park ’N Fly in the Philippines, recent moves by the airport authority likely steered business its way as well.

We’re talking about that overdue increase in parking rates at Naia, which was finally implemented in 2013 and ended an era of P50 overnight fees. That move led many clients to simply shift to Park ’N Fly rather than risk dust and deal with congestion in Naia’s open parking lots.  Miguel R. Camus

Sharing ‘secrets to success’

Businessman Manuel Pangilinan never shies away from opportunities to give speeches, especially ones where he is able to dispense his philosophies in the world of business to an eager audience—include little gems of wisdom like his supposed personal favorite: “Reach beyond your grasp.”

He is, we understand, especially fond of delivering commencement addresses during graduation ceremonies that happen around this time every year. And this year was no different, as he shared the so-called secrets to his success with the graduating students of Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynilad (PLM).

And what were these secrets? Well, apparently, there are no secrets, according to the telecommunications tycoon—just a lot of old-fashioned hard work.

“There is no magic. No mystery. No secret recipe. Success springs from values as basic and old -fashioned as being honest and truthful. Working hard, playing fair, setting goals and having the discipline and determination to pursue them,” Pangilinan said.

Of course, no speech like this is complete without the speaker laying down proof that old-fashioned hard work works, so he proceeded to regale his audience with stories about his humble beginnings.

The public university then honored the businessman with a doctorate in humanities (honorary, of course).

Reciprocating this, Pangilinan promised PLM it would soon enjoy more services from some of the companies in the Metro Pacific group, including potable water from Maynilad, repairs of electrical facilities by Meralco and, perhaps most importantly for students, free wi-fi services from PLDT.

And, oh, he also made a personal donation of P20 million to the university.–Daxim L. Lucas

E-mail us at bizbuzz@inquirer.com.ph. Get business alerts and a preview of Biz Buzz the evening before it comes out. Text ON INQ BUSINESS to 4467 (P2.50/alert).