Kuok Phils to dispose of shares in KPPI Land

Property holding and investment company Kuok Philippine Properties Inc. (KPPI) will dispose of its shareholdings and other interests in its 60-percent subsidiary KPPI Land Corp. in a move to generate funds for its debt reduction program.

In a letter to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), KPPI corporate secretary Federico Noel said the board of directors has authorized the sale and/or transfer of the company’s deposits and shareholders’ advances in KPPI Land under terms and conditions reasonable and in the best interest of the corporation.

KPPI Land is a joint venture with Pelangi Berhad, a listed company engaged in the business of property developments in Malaysia. It is developing approximately 1,051 hectares of land in the towns of Silang and Carmona in Cavite.

An earlier report from the financial statements of Kuok said its strategy of selling some of its assets to reduce its liabilities has given it the breathing space needed to continue to survive under these difficult conditions.

"It is important that the company be able to continue to carry itself until such time as the real estate market normalizes. In this way, it can obtain good values for its extensive land assets," the company said.

Aside from the KPPI Land, Kuok’s other subsidiaries and affiliates are KPPI Realty Corp., Sky Leisure Properties Inc. and Exchange Properties Resources Corp.

The group has a string of projects, mostly vertical development projects like condominium offices. It also has a beach resort in Ternate, Cavite (Caylabne Bay Resort) and a 107.2-hectare lot in Tagaytay, as well as landholdings in Cebu, Batangas, Laguna and Cavite.

Kuok said a successful sale of KPPI Land "could result in the elimination of all liabilities and could leave the company with enough funds to carry itself through this difficulty period."

As of end-2000, Kuok still has over P2.5 billion worth of interest-bearing liabilities to deal with, although this was vastly improved from P4.8 billion due to the sale of a number of properties including its 23.5-percent stake in KSA Realty Corp. (the owner of the Enterprise Center Building) and its 26-percent interest in EDSA Properties Holdings. – Conrado Diaz Jr.