By Jenniffer B. Austria | Aug. 07,
2015 at 11:35pm [ manilastandardtoday.com ]
GT Capital Holdings, Inc., the listed
holding company of business tycoon George Ty, is acquiring a 22.68-percent
stake in mass housing developer Property Company of Friends Inc. for P7.24
billion.
GT Capital said in a disclosure to the
stock exchange the agreement gave the company an option to increase its direct
shareholdings in PCFI to 51 percent within the next three years.
GT Capital’s acquisition followed the
difficulty of PCFI in securing approval from the Philippine Stock Exchange to
proceed with a P7.7-billion initial public offering.
PCFI, a unit of Profriends Group Inc.,
filed an application in 2014 to hold an IPO. PCFI recently pulled out the plan
to sell its shares to the public.
GT Capital’s acquisition marks the
conglomerate’s venture into the mass housing development and is expected to
complement its real estate develop unit Federal Land Inc.
“We view this acquisition as a
mutually beneficial partnership for both parties. PCFI has the product
expertise and the strategic land bank, while GT Capital has the financial
resources and access to capital. Our partnership adds a new dimension to GT
Capital’s property development portfolio and will enable our group to be one of
the market leaders in the low-cost housing sector,” GT Capital chairman
Francisco Sebastian said.
PCFI chairman Guillermo Choa welcomed
the company’s partnership with GT Capital.
“The low-cost housing segment is the
real sweet spot in the country’s property sector, with a supply shortage of
over three million homes, which continues to grow annually,” Choa said.
“Our partnership with GT Capital will
strengthen our ability to be a leading player in serving this urgent market
need. Moreover, the potential synergies of working with other component
companies in the GT Capital group will enable us to offer our live, work,
learn, play, and worship estates to many more middle income Filipino families,”
he added.
Federal Land president Alfred Ty said
the acquisition would expand the group’s presence in the property market.
“The GT Capital group will now offer
Federal Land’s upper- mid to high-end vertical projects and PCFI’s low-cost
horizontal and mixed-use townships in key areas near Metro Manila. Our
strategic tie-up will, thus, be a fusion of all property sub-segments,” Ty
said.
Established in 1999, PCFI is today one
of the country’s leading property developers, focusing on the low-cost and
economic housing segments, and retail and office space leasing.
PCFI reported an audited net income
after tax of P3.61 billion in 2014.
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