Tuesday, December 23, 2008 [ manilatimes.net ]
By Chino S. Leyco, Reporter
THE Philippines’ largest property developer would bid for the Taguig City property of state-owned Food Terminal Inc. next year, the Department of Finance said Monday.
Finance Undersecretary Crisanta Legazpi said Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) is among several private companies that showed interest in the 120-hectare land, which would be put on the auction block in the first half of next year.
ALI earlier said it would also bid for the second phase of an information technology park of the University of the Philippines.
Legazpi said state-run Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) would also bid for FTI. The state-run pension fund in January bought government’s shareholdings in Manila Electric Co. for P8.9 billion.
Besides FTI, the government has lined-up the Philippine National Oil Co.-Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC) for disposal next year, as well as the lease of its property in Fujimi Cho, Chiyoda Ku, in Tokyo
Finance Secretary Margarito Teves had said the country expects to generate P20 billion from non-tax revenues next year, or higher than the earlier program of only P15 billion. This is on the back of higher state spending to prop up the domestic economy amid a global slowdown.
With the sale of the three state assets, Teves said the government expects to raise P10 billion from FTI, or lower than the earlier assumption of P15 billion.
Teves did not provide any valuation for the Fujimi pro-perty and PNOC-EC.
“Well it’s conservatively put at P10 billion for FTI. But we don’t know. Those numbers can change. I guess it’s best to be conservative about it,” he said.
The sale and lease of some government’s assets are part of its efforts to improve the country’s fiscal position and boost its coffers.
Amid volatile financial markets this year the government pushed back its plan to sell the state’s stake in PNOC-EC.
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