Friday, January 16, 2009 [ manilatimes.net ]
STATE-RUN Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) cut its offer for the Taguig City property of Food Terminal Inc. (FTI).
At a briefing, Winston Garcia, GSIS president, said the pension fund plans to offer P6 billion for FTI, lower than last year’s offer of P7 billion to P8 billion.
“After five years, we expect a 100-percent return from buying FTI, instead of investing in government securities,” Garcia said.
Garcia said GSIS plans to construct an interchange connecting FTI to C-5 road.
The government plans to privatize FTI by June and hopes to raise P10 billion, or lower than the earlier assumption of P15 billion.
The pension fund in January last year bought the government’s shareholdings in Manila Electric Co. for P8.9 billion.
Besides GSIS, Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) is among several private companies that showed interest in FTI’s 120-hectare land.
The government also 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.-- Maricel E. Burgonio