by Julito G. Rada
[ manilastandardtoday.com] August 29, 2011
State-owned Clark Development Corp. said three prospective investors have expressed interest to join the bidding for the 215-hectare Mimosa Leisure Estate in Clark Freeport Zone, a top official said over the weekend.
“There were three bidders [who purchased the terms of reference]. These are IPG, Dain and City Corp., and Fourds Asia Consultancy and Development Corp.,” Felipe Antonio Remollo, CDC president and chief executive, told Manila Standard in a text message.
“They are just representatives. But I sense that their principals are foreign-based,” Remollo said, adding the three bought the terms of reference before the deadline expired Friday.
Remollo said the agency’s Bids and Awards Committee furnished him the names of the three parties at the close of application 4 p.m. on Friday. He did not give details on the three companies.
He said the CDC furnished the prospective bidders with the terms after payment of a non-refundable fee of P1 million. CDC held a pre-bid conference also on Friday.
Remollo said CDC set the minimum bid price of P1 billion “with a yearly lease of P250 million.”
He said the winning bidder would not assume the unsettled obligations of Mondragon Leisure and Resorts Corp. with banks.
“Mondragon was a mere lessee of CDC. It had no proprietary rights over Mimosa. So the creditors may go after Mondragon and not CDC nor whoever wins the bid,” Remollo said.
CDC in 1998 took control of the management and operations of Mimosa, after its former owner Jose Antonio Gonzales of the Mondragon Leisure and Resorts Corp. failed to settle its obligations with the government.
The agency earlier said successful bidders would operate, manage and further develop the existing hotel and villas in the free port into a prime tourist and recreational destination in Central Luzon. The lease will cover a period of 50 years and renewable for another 25 years.
CDC said bidders must have a track record in the operations, management and/or ownership of at least a five-star accommodation facility with at least 250 rooms, for a minimum period of one year.
The agency tried to privatize the leisure estate in the past but did not succeed.
On its third and last attempt in 2008, the government nullified the winning bid of NTM Jin Hung of Korea for its alleged failure to pay in full the required amount stipulated in the bid contract. CDC that year set the minimum bid price of P1.4 billion.
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