Published : Tuesday, June 19, 2012 00:00 [ manilatimes.net ]
Written by : JAMES KONSTANTIN GALVEZ REPORTER
Villar-led Polar Property Holdings
Corp. and Manuela Corp. announced the consolidation of their resources and
operations via a share-swap transaction to strengthen the group’s presence in
the retail business and development of office space for the business process
outsourcing (BPO) industry.
In a statement, Polar Property
stockholders approved the increase in the company’s authorized capital stock
from P5.5 billion to P17 billion and the issuance of shares out of the same
capital increase as consideration for its acquisition of a 98 percent equity
interest in Manuela.
The stockholders also approved the
change in name of the company to Starmalls Inc.
“The corporate move will make the
renamed Starmalls Inc. a major player in the retailing business and provide it
a takeoff point to compete in the office space leasing business primarily for
the booming BPO industry,” the group said.
Manuela Corp. opened its first
shopping mall in Las Piñas City in 1979 and three other malls between 1982 and
1996: Starmall Las Piñas Annex, Starmall EDSA in Mandaluyong City and Starmall
Alabang in Muntinlupa.
Forced to go into corporate
rehabilitation following the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s, Manuela,
whose management was taken over by the Villar family in 2008, finally emerged
from rehabilitation early this year.
In April 2012, less than three months
after the termination of its rehabilitation program, Manuela opened its newest
mall, Starmall San Jose del Monte, a three-level structure with gross floor
area of 35,700 square meters and the first shopping complex in the biggest city
in Bulacan.
The project brought Manuela’s mall
portfolio to five, with an aggregate gross floor area of 363,000 square meters
and 1,777 tenants.
Manuela also owns the Worldwide
Corporate Center in Mandaluyong City, which has been accredited by the
Philippine Economic Zone Authority as an Information Technology Building and
currently houses some of the major BPO players in the country, including Sykes
and Stream Global.
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