HK, Taiwan groups show interest in Uniwide

After being abandoned by French retail giant Casino Guichard-Perrachon, the Uniwide Group has attracted renewed interest for a possible buy-in from two Asian-based investors, keeping its rehabilitation program intact.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairperson Lilia Bautista said aside from the Wal-Mart chain of the US, there are feelers sent by groups from Hong Kong and Taiwan for exploratory negotiations on Uniwide.

Bautista said while the infusion of fresh capital into the debt-saddled Go-controlled companies would be delayed due to the sudden pull-out of Casino early this month, the creditor banks of Uniwide have agreed to push through with the dacion en pago arrangement.

She said the bank consortium, along with the SEC-appointed interium rehabilitation receiver (IRR) committee headed by Monico Jacob, would be working on the transfer of the company’s assets to a new corporate vehicle for that purpose.

Casino was set to finalize a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Uniwide that would give the French "white knight" control of the Uniwide group of companies upon infusing almost P4 billion in fresh equity.

However, Jacob said Casino backed out of the deal and opted not to extend the MOU which expired on Dec. 13, 2000 even as the IRR has clinched the much-delayed approval of all the creditor banks on the rehabilitation plan.

Casino was reported to have stated it was abandoning its plans to buy most of Uniwide, not because of the country’s political uncertainties, but because creditors failed to agree on how to rehabilitate the discount retailer.

Casino and Uniwide signed the MOU a year ago but could not execute the fund infusion and corporate rehabilitation pending the consent of all of Uniwide’s creditor banks. Uniwide has a debt load of Uniwide’s creditor banks. Uniwide has a debt load of about P16 billion, over half of which are owed to banks.

A memorandum of agreement with some of the banks was also supposed to be executed, but which Casino knew cannot be completed prior to Dec. 31.

Jacob said the expiration of the MOU has set the stage for opening up discussions with other strategic investors that have previously expressed interest in Uniwide.