By Jennifer Ambanta | Sep. 17, 2014 at
11:01pm [ manilastandardtoday.com ]
The Government Service Insurance
System, the pension fund of government employees, expects to raise at least
P1.7 billion from the sale of two lots in Bonifacio Global City and a property
in Parañaque City next week.
GSIS president and general manager
Robert Vergara said the fund would bid out two parcels in Bonifacio Global City
for a floor price of P520 million each on Sept. 23.
“The deadline for the purchase of bid
documents will be this Friday. We think, we will have more bidders by then,” he
said.
Vergara said eight interested parties
purchased the bid documents from the GSIS office.
The two parcels of land are equally
divided, with 1,600 square meters each.
GSIS set a minimum bid price of P325,000 per square meter.
“This is not a complicated bidding.
Who bids most, wins,” Vergara said.
The third property is the former
location of Water Fun amusement park in Sucat, Paranaque City with a total lot
area of two hectares and a minimum bid price of P627 million.
Vergara said the three properties
represented the second set of properties the fund tried to sell via public
bidding. “The first one included the
former location of the Jai Alai building along Taft Ave., which we have not
sold yet, until now due to its location, which is right in front of Torre de
Manila,” he said.
Vergara said GSIS also had another
large property in Bonifacio Global City, with 8,000 sqm but there were no
immediate plan to dispose it yet. “We
want to see how things would be for these ones first, then later, on we can
decide,” he said.
GSIS said revenues in the first half
rose 24 percent to P83 billion from P67 billion a year ago. Vergara said the increase in income was led
by strong investment gains.
“Aside from the return on investments
and premiums, half of it came from our normal business, the other health to
maturity portfolio securities which underrwent reclassification,” he said.
GSIS reclassified its held-to-maturity
portfolio as mark-to-market accounts so it can trade the facility and realize
its gains.
The fund said of the total revenues,
P43 billion came from the social insurance and general insurance. This was 5
percent higher than P40 billion recorded in the same period last year. Interest income rose to P11.3 billion in the
first half from P10.4 billion a year ago.
“We lent out more this year,” Vergara said.
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