Tuesday, June 09, 2009 [ manilatimes.net ]
By Chino S. Leyco, Reporter
THE property development arm of the Filinvest group of companies announced on Monday that it would participate in the bidding for North Bonifacio lots of state-owned Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA).
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Filinvest Land, Inc. (FLI) said it submitted last week the eligibility requirements for the privatization and joint venture development of BCDA’s 8.38-hectare property at Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City.
In April, BCDA said the property would be disposed using the National Economic and Development Authority’s guidelines for Competitive Challenge Type Procedure for Public-Private Joint Ventures issued last year.
This type of bidding is more popularly known as the “Swiss” challenge.
Under this competitive challenge scheme, BCDA would be inviting proposals from other firms to match a proposal submitted by a developer.
BCDA has already received a proposal from Megaworld Corp. last year for this property to be converted into a mixed-use development of more than 500,000 square meters of gross floor area or a commitment of P15.6 billion. This project would be mainly made up of residential units but it would also include some office and retail spaces.
The state-run firm already received a P700-million proposal security from Megaworld and this upfront cash payment would be refunded if the property firm loses the challenge.
After this, BCDA would determine the eligibility of other interested developers and the agency would later receive and evaluate the financial and technical proposals of eligible proponents.
Then the state-run firm said Megaworld would then have to match what the agency would deem as the best offer from challengers to seal the deal. If Megaworld would not be able to match it, then the project would be granted to the challenger, she said.
The government-owned firm aims to sign the contract with the winning bidder by August and the minimum bid would be P33,283.88 per square meter, or at least P2.789 billion, which is the lot’s present value.
At end-March, FLI’s profit last year grew by 28 percent to P1.867 billion last year from P1.453 billion a year ago due to the robust earnings from its low-end residential housing projects.
FLI attributed the increase on good sales from the socialized, affordable and middle-income housing markets.
Total revenues last year amounted to P5.270 billion, a 9-percent rise over the P4.772 billion generated the previous year.
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