Macquarie will also be appointed as financial advisor for the project.

Ausphil submitted the unsolicited P7.8 billion BOT tollroad proposal to the government five years ago. It was recently awarded the project exactly one year after President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo approved the amendments to the implementing rules and regulations of the BOT law in April 2006, particularly in relation to existing unsolicited proposals.

Ausphil president and CEO Ricardo Penson, who joined in Canberra as member of the President’s business delegation to Australia said, "if anybody can syndicate infrastructure asset finance to a Philippine project at this time, Macquarie can."

He said his sponsor group was getting impatient but his enthusiasm prevailed.

Penson said the days of difficulty in pursuing BOT projects are coming to an end, "private and public sectors need to dialogue more often to get a grip on a common interpretation of the provisions of the BOT law, thereby eliminating the existing gray areas."

"Practical experience helps and understandably when two partners dance, practice is required," he said. The NLEE is the first perfected unsolicited BOT tollroad project in the country.

The multinational composition of the Ausphil group is another proof of Filipino businesses going global.

With Ausphil business development and engineering audit in Brisbane, Australia , the Pasig City based proponent is currently in discussion with a large Chinese group to partner in their subsidiary unit La Mesa Resources Corporation which will undertake the R1.12-B 35-MW hydroelectric power and R15.2 million annual cubic meters of bulk water production as components of the project.