Posted on January 22, 2012 10:12:27 PM [ BusinessWorld Online ]
PHILIPPINE STOCK Exchange, Inc. (PSE), which operates the country’s only bourse, wants to complete a negotiated auction of its former office in the Ortigas business district within the year, its chief executive said late last week.
Plans for the new headquarters in the sprawling Fort Bonifacio in Taguig, meanwhile, will be announced in the next few weeks.
“There are some interested buyers for a negotiated bid. We went to the formal bidding process,” PSE President and Chief Executive Hans B. Sicat said in a chance interview.
The old building should be sold off “hopefully within the year, [in the] second half” with roughly five buyers signaling interest, Mr. Sicat said.
The PSE failed to sell the property through public auctions conducted in August and September last year when the floor price was pegged at P45,000 per square meter (sq. m.), excluding value-added tax.
“There is a requirement of three valid bids for all the biddings so it all failed,” Mr. Sicat said.
It is a 4,754.72-sq. m. property that covers three floors and 21 parking slots at the so-called Tektite Towers in Ortigas Center.
In the two failed public auctions, interested bidders were required to pay a non-refundable bid participation fee of P10,000 in exchange for a bidding kit that contains reference materials for due diligence.
Meanwhile, the PSE also said it was close to finalizing plans for a new headquarters in Fort Bonifacio in Taguig.
“It is near because we are negotiating the actual agreement,” Mr. Sicat said, saying it should be ready in two to three years.
This in line with a four-year plan to build and move into the new office.
“One thing is clear, that it will be a structure in the west block, where Shangri-La is,” Mr. Sicat said.
He added that construction time for the building, which will also have a commercial space for leasing, is three and a half to four years, which will allow the PSE to move in by early 2016.
However, Mr. Sicat declined to give an estimated cost for the project.
The PSE now occupies about 5,000 sq. m. of office spaces and trading floors in Tower 1 in Makati City.
It used to have two trading floors -- one in Makati and another in Ortigas Center, which the PSE has decided to move out of starting to cut costs and generate profits.
“We are just discussing with Ayala Land, Inc.,” Mr. Sicat said.
Ayala Land officials could not be immediately reached to confirm this.
The PSE has 246 listed companies and 133 active trading participants. -- Neil Jerome C. Morales
_____________________________________________________________
