MANILA, Philippines - A unit of diversifying conglomerate San Miguel Corp. has appealed to the government to reconsider its bid for the contract to operate the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx).

Northlink Toll Management, Inc. made it to the Friday deadline to submit the petition to the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), San Miguel President Ramon S. Ang said in a text message.

A San Miguel official who asked not to be named also said the food and beverage giant had submitted the appeal to reconsider its technical bid to manage the 94-kilometer tollway.

The BCDA could not be immediately reached for confirmation.

The bid of Northlink, a joint venture between San Miguel and Star Tollways Corp., was thrown out last week for failing to meet technical requirements, leaving behind Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC) as the sole eligible bidder, the BCDA had said.

But MNTC failed to hurdle the financial screening process, which is the second step.

The contract’s minimum price is pegged at either 20% of gross toll sales or a fee equal to the loan payments due to the Japan Bank International Cooperation (JBIC), whichever is higher. JBIC provided the P28-billion loan to build the tollway.

BCDA gave Northlink up to Friday to appeal while MNTC has until today to file its petition.

For MNTC, bagging SCTEx will complement its concession over the North Luzon Expressway. MNTC is the interim toll operator of the SCTEx. The SCTEx contract is also strategic for San Miguel, which is co-developing the 88.5-kilometer Tarlac-La Union expressway.

The National Economic and Development Authority’s rules for such auctions provide that the BCDA has 30 days to act on the appeals. If the BCDA upholds the original decision in which only MNTC is eligible, negotiations on the firm’s financial proposal will ensue and MNTC will be asked to submit a revised proposal.

If this fails to meet the minimum requirements again, another round of “competitive selection” may be held.

San Miguel share prices closed at P71.50 apiece on Friday, unchanged from the previous day. Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. -- the parent firm of MNTC -- fell by 3.7% to P2.60.

Metro Pacific Tollways is the infrastructure arm of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., the local unit of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., which partly owns the Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) Co.

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