Monday, June 08, 2009 [ manilatimes.net ]
THE property arm of Southeast Asia’s largest food and beverage conglomerate is interested in acquiring state-owned Food Terminal Inc. (FTI).
Ramon Ang, San Miguel Properties Inc. (SMPI) president, said the company is interested in the 120-hectare property, which the Department of Finance has lined up for privatization this year.
“If the price of FTI is right,” Ang said SMPI would bid for the property. At its current valuation, he said the FTI, however, is overpriced, echoing the earlier sentiment of state-run Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), which had also expressed interest in the asset.
The government expects to raise P10 billion from the sale of FTI, which is already lower than the earlier assumption of P15 billion.
GSIS, however, is willing to buy FTI for only P7 billion.
The pension fund said it is asking for a lower price due to problems that the buyer would face, like the existing leases and access road to the property.
“The problem with FTI is that they have existing leases that we have to respect and they will struggle beyond 2010. Nobody can afford to park their money, P15, or P10 billion and not be able to develop it immediately,” Winston Garcia, GSIS president, had said.
Aside from SMPI and GSIS, the finance department earlier said Ayala Land Inc. had also expressed interest in the asset.
The sale of FTI is in line with the government’s efforts to chalk up more funds to offset weak tax collections arising from the economic slowdown.
In the first four months of the year, the Philippines’ budget deficit hit P111.8 billion as revenues fell below last year’s levels.
-- Chino S. Leyco
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