Monday, June 22, 2009 [ manilatimes.net ]
MEGAWORLD Corp. may bid for the state-owned Food Terminal Inc. (FTI).
Kingson Sian, Megaworld Corp. executive director, said the company remains opportunistic in increasing its land bank and has the cash resources to participate in the privatization of state assets.
“We’re looking around, especially now that [the] market has softened, so obviously [the] property price has softened. Now is the good time to look at opportunities,” he said.
Sian said the FTI property in Taguig City is “a good property.”
The Department of Finance earlier said the Cabinet approved the sale next month of 103 out of the 120-hectare FTI property.
Finance Undersecretary Crisanta Legaspi had said the property will be sold by blocks so the “developer can have flexibility to develop the lot in the best way possible.”
The government wants to segregate the FTI property given existing short- and long-term leases of some private companies.
The terminal is an agro-industrial-commercial estate and one of the largest industrial complexes in Metro Manila.
The government expects to raise P10 billion from the sale of FTI, which is lower than the earlier assumption of P15 billion. State-run Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) had expressed interest in FTI, offering P7 billion for it.
Besides GSIS, San Miguel Properties Inc. and Ayala Land Inc. also were interested in buying the lot.
Megaworld would also participate in the bidding for North Bonifacio lots of state-owned Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA).
The property would be disposed using the National Economic and Development Authority’s guidelines for Competitive Challenge Type Procedure for Public-Private Joint Ventures.
This type of bidding is more popularly known as the “Swiss” challenge.
BCDA received a P700-million proposal security from Megaworld last year.
-- Chino S. Leyco
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