[ manilastandardtoday.com ] November 9, 2009
by Elaine R. Alanguilan
State-owned National Development Co. plans to auction early next year its shares in a company that owns an 18-hectare prime property in Las Piñas housing the manufacturing facilities of tire maker Goodyear Philippines Inc.
“We are trying to sell the shares of NDC in GY Real Estate Inc. within the first quarter of next year. We are still determining how to go about the divestment. We are also looking at the valuations. Definitely, the sale would be done via bidding,” said NDC general manager Lourdes Rebueno.
GY Realty is the joint venture company created to own the Las Piñas property where Goodyear’s Philippine headquarters was located. NDC owns 60 percent of the company, while Goodyear, restricted by the limit on foreign ownership of land, holds the balance.
The property is near the posh Ayala Alabang village and the Madrigal business park.
A number of property developers are reportedly looking at the Goodyear property, including Ayala Land Inc. and Robinsons Land Corp. The property has an attractive 300-meter frontage ideal for mixed-use commercial and residential projects.
The tire maker used to fully own the property before giving up 60 percent of GY Realty after the expiry of the Laurel-Langley treat. The agreement gave parity rights to land ownership by Americans until 1974.
Goodyear later agreed to lease the property from GY Real Estate for 25 years, with the option to renew for another 25 years.
Goodyear and NDC since then had been negotiating for the terms of the new contract even before the tire maker announced its plan early this year to close down its Philippine manufacturing operations.
The government has sought higher rental from Goodyear, which offered a lower rate.
An outright sale of the property could bring in as much as P3.6 billion to NDC, according to estimates made at least three years ago.
Earlier, Trade Secretary Peter Favila said one option that NDC had looked was for Goodyear to sell its shares in GY Real Estate to NDC. The state company had planned to sell the entire shares of GY Real Estate as part of its asset disposal strategy.
“If Goodyear would sell the property to NDC and government can afford it, then we are willing to take in the facilities as well and then we’ll see how we can go about selling the property and the assets,” said Favila earlier.
Goodyear earlier announced plans to close down its Philippine tire manufacturing operations and limit them to sales and distribution as part of a global rationalization strategy.
Former company president and managing director David Morin said the slump in exports, which accounted for half of its business in the Philippines, had eroded the firm’s cost competitiveness.
Some 500 employees lost their jobs because of the plant closure.
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