Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Jaime Bautista on Monday said the agency received additional interest from a Turkish company to bid for the rehabilitation of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

At a forum of the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines (EJAP) at the Ayuntamiento in Intramuros, Manila, Bautista said there are now eight potential bidders for the PHP170.6-billion rehabilitation of the country's main airport.

"There are eight possible bidders. Last week, there's one company from Turkey (Türkiye) who bought the bidding documents," Bautista said.

The latest prospective bidder is Limak Holding A.S., a conglomerate involved in the business of construction, energy, cement, and tourism, the DOTr said.

In September, Turkish firm Cengiz Insaat Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S. also bought bidding documents for the airport improvement project.

Bautista said six out of the eight potential bidders are foreign companies, while one of the two local firms has foreign participation.

"We are in the process of one-on-one meeting with them, responding to their questions, to their queries. And we are expecting that they will be able to meet our deadline of submitting their proposal by December 27," the DOTr chief added.

Bautista said the agency targets to award the rehabilitation project by the first quarter of 2024 and reach the financial close in the second quarter next year.

"(The) financial close is very important because the winning bidder will have to pay an upfront fee, which is part of the Terms of Reference," he said, adding that the upfront fee costs PHP30 billion.