Monday, 30 November 2009 00:00 [ manilatimes.net ]
BY CHINO S. LEYCO REPORTER
THE country’s largest property developer said that it is still keen on a huge block of the Food
Terminal Inc. (FTI) property that the government wants to privatize. Antonio Aquino, Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) president, said the price tag the government set was the primary reason why the property company did not bid for the 103-hectare FTI lot last month.
“The minimum price that they’ve said in the past was something too high. That’s the main reason we did
not bid,” Aquino told reporters in a recent interview.
“We’ll have to wait for a framework that will be acceptable to a lot of parties that hopefully will make it successful,” he said.
“You have to make sure that it is an economically viable proposition that’s always the important item that you should look at in everything we do,” he added.
The Department of Finance (DOF) had wanted to sell the FTI property for a premium to help raise enough money to plug the government’s record budget deficit this year.
The agency set a P13-billion floor price, as it is hard-pressed to meet its P30 billion target proceeds from privatization. In the first nine months, the government had raised a mere P1 billion from asset sales.
After the third failed auction for FTI in October, the DOF is looking at entering into direct negotiations with potential buyers like ALI.
The department said it was in talks with three interested parties following the failed auction. It had said that one of the three parties has long been in the property business, but stopped short of identifying the group.
FTI is an agro-industrial commercial estate in Taguig City that was built to become a food processing and consolidation center for agricultural produce.
The terminal houses more than 300 small and medium enterprises engaged in garments and electronics manufacturing.
State-run National Food Authority (NFA) owns about 17 hectares of the FTI property.
Aquino said ALI is “going to look at the [FTI property the] same way as maybe the Bonifacio Global City,” a former military base-turned-commercial and residential center.
A few years ago, ALI assumed control over the development of the Bonifacio Global City, which is a stone’s throw away from the FTI lot.
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