By Jenniffer B. Austria | Nov. 18,
2013 at 12:02am [ manilastandardtoday.com ]
GT Capital Holdings Inc., the holding
company of tycoon George Ty, has expressed interest to contest the
P54.5-billion offer of SM Group for the 300-hectare reclamation project in
Pasay City.
GT Capital became the second company
to contest the unsolicited proposal of SM Land, after developer Ayala Land
asked Pasay City Mayor Antonino Calixto to extend the Nov. 4 deadline for the
submission of counter bids.
GT Capital president Carmelo Maria
Luza Bautista said in an interview the company was very much interested in
participating in the bidding for the proposed reclamation of Manila Bay in the
western section of Pasay City. “We are very much interested in the project. We
wrote Mayor Calixto to express our interest on the project,” Bautista said.
Bautista said GT Capital was
interested in the project because it already has an existing 300-hectare
reclaimed property along Roxas Boulevard. He said the company was in talks with
various parties as possible partners for the proposed project.
The company, which owns Federal Land
Inc., said it was also open to possible partnership with other interested
bidders, including Ayala Land Inc. and SM Land Inc.
Bautista, however, said it would take
several months before the company could come up with a masterplan for the
project and was thus supporting Ayala Land’s proposal to delay the bidding
schedule.
SM Land earlier submitted an
unsolicited proposal to reclaim 300-hectares of land for P54.5 billion.
Ayala Land’s proposal to extend the
deadline for the submission of a counter bid was earlier rejected by the Pasay
City government.
The Pasay City government published
the notice of unsolicited proposal and invitation for competing proposals on
Oct. 1 and gave all interested parties until Nov. 4 to submit counterproposals
to the bids and awards committee
Meanwhile, Bautista said GT Capital
was on track to hit a net income of P9.5 billion this year, after consolidated
profit in the first nine months grew 44 percent to P7.7 billion from P5.3
billion a year ago.
Nine-month consolidated revenues
surged 362 percent to P77.2 billion from P16.7 billion year-on-year, on larger
income contributions from banking and insurance subsidiaries and higher real
estate revenues from property unit.
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