MANILA, Philippines - Villar-led Polar
Property Holdings Inc. has obtained the Securities and Exchange Commission’s
nod to raise its authorized capital to P17 billion from only P5.5 billion.
Polar Property told the Philippine
Stock Exchange it also secured approval to change its name to Starmalls Inc. in
line with the consolidation of the Villar family’s retail and office building
assets under one basket.
The merger of Polar and Manuela Corp.
would be implemented via a share swap scheme, with the former issuing 3.53
billion common shares worth P3.53 billion in exchange for a 98 percent stake in
the latter.
With the merger, Starmalls aims to
become a major player in the retailing business and compete head on with other
BPO building developers.
Manuela 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 and Starmall Alabang in
Muntinlupa.
The Villar family took over Manuela in
2008 after succumbing to the ill-effects of the Asian financial crisis in 2007.
In April 2012, or barely 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 sqm and 1,777
tenants.
Manuela also owns the Worldwide
Corporate Center in Mandaluyong City, which has been accredited by the
Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) as an IT building and currently
houses some of the major BPO players in the country, including Sykes and Stream
Global.
The Starmall group has set a P15
billion capital expenditure program over the next five years as it embarks on a
nationwide expansion which will include the opening of new malls in Visayas and
Mindanao.
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