October 2, 2013 9:34 pm [
manilatimes.net ]
The 300-hectare multibillion-peso
reclamation proposal of the property arm of tycoon Henry Sy, SM Land Inc., will
likely face potential counterproposals in a Swiss challenge.
Astro del Castillo, First Grade
Finance managing director, said in a telephone interview that SM Land may face
a competitive set of contenders for the proposed reclamation project off Pasay
City.
“We can speculate that other big
developers in the country will join the challenge.
Those big developers that are
qualified,” del Castillo said, indicating that Ayala Land Inc. and Andrew
Tan-led Megaworld Corp. may be some of those developers that will be interested
to join the Swiss challenge.
In a notice of unsolicited proposal
and invitation for competing proposals, Pasay City administrator Dennis Bernard
Acorda said that interested parties for the said challenge are welcome to
submit counter-proposals until October 4.
Interested parties should have
undertaken and completed a similar reclamation project with an area of not less
than 120 hectares preferably within the Manila Bay area, and should have a
minimum net worth of P50 billion, the notice specified.
When asked if the SM Group is
expecting immediate contenders for the Swiss challenge, Cora Guidote, SM
Investments Corp. senior vice president for Investor Relations, only said the
firm still “doesn’t know what to expect yet.”
“We are confirming the news. It is
based on an unsolicited proposal that is being subjected to a Swiss challenge
and handled by the Pasay City government,” Guidote said in a text message.
She did not specy what kind of
development the Sy-led conglomerate intends to build in the property if ever it
wins the Swiss challenge.
“It’s too early to say [what kind of
project SM intends to develop in the area], let’s take it a step at a time,”
she further said.
In a public notice, Pasay City Public
Private Partnership Selection Committee announced that SM Land submitted an
unsolicited proposal offering to develop a 300-hectare reclaimed property
located in the western part of Pasay City for P54.5 billion.
According to the notice, SM Land
further offered to fully fund the development, including the costs of permits,
clearances and other expenses for government and legal requirements.
Of the 300 hectares that will be
reclaimed, 153 hectares would be allotted to the Pasay City government. The
project, which is proposed to be under a joint venture between SM Land and the
Pasay City government, can be completed in seven years from the issuance of the
notice to proceed.
Under the Swiss challenge, the
government or local government conducts a comparative bidding after it receives
an unsolicited project proposal.
Madelaine B. Miraflor
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