First Pacific Company and Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC) have formed a joint venture to spearhead new infrastructure investments in emerging Asian economies. First Pacific will hold 75% of the venture while FPM Infrastructure Holdings and MPIC will take the rest.

The joint venture is investing US$132 million to obtain a 29.45% stake in a Thai toll road operator, Don Muang Tollway Public Company (DMT). Further investments in infrastructure projects in the region are planned, leveraging the experience and expertise that MPIC has developed in its Philippine businesses and exporting them to new jurisdictions.

First Pacific, an investment management and holding company focussed on the economies of emerging Asia, is a major investor in the Philippines' biggest telecommunications, infrastructure and mining companies, in Indonesia's biggest vertically- integrated food company and in Singapore's newest and most modern gas-fired power plant. This is MPIC's first investment outside its home market.

"We are seeing more opportunities outside the infrastructure market of the Philippines," said Manuel V. Pangilinan, managing director and chief executive officer of First Pacific.

Under the agreement, a wholly-owned unit of FPM Infrastructure has acquired 29.45% of DMT for US$132 million in cash, giving First Pacific a direct and attributable economic interest in DMT of 26.2%. The transaction marks First Pacific's first step into Thai market since selling its stake in Thailand's Berli Jucker Public Company in 2001. First Pacific is funding its US$100 million share of the purchase price with cash while MPIC is financing its share with internal resources.

"We're hopeful for a warm welcome in Thailand as we seek to diversify into new markets," said Jose Ma. K. Lim, President and Chief Executive Officer of MPIC. "Strong economic growth, a level playing field and a regulatory regime that welcomes investment combine to form a strong foundation for us to build our new project on."

Pangilinan pointed to the toll road's steady and growing profitability as a key attraction for First Pacific. "This company has been paying dividends for the past four years and we are pleased to see that our investment will begin immediately delivering dividends to us," he said. "We expect strong and steady growth from this investment going forward."

The vendor of the toll road stake is a 50-50 joint venture between Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and South East Asian Strategic Assets Fund. Other major DMT shareholders include the Phanichewa Group with 37.1% and Thailand's ministry of finance with 25.1%.

Working under a 27-year concession ending in 2034, DMT operates a 21.9-kilometer six-lane elevated toll road stretching from Din Daeng in central Bangkok past Don Muang Airport and on to the National Monument in the north of the capital. The road traverses residential communities, universities and industrial estates. Planned along its route are a bus terminal and the new government administrative center.

Traffic on the toll road has risen 10% in the year since budget airlines began relocating to the airport in October 2012. In the first nine months of 2013, traffic averaged 77,000 vehicles per day on the original toll road. Further growth is seen as a result of population and economic growth in Bangkok and the full reopening of Don Muang Airport's Terminal 2 in 2016 as budget airlines continue relocating there.