According to Fairmont’s corporate information officer Fatima Reyes, the company’s board has approved the change in name — just over a year since it junked the scandal-tainted BW name – in line with the amendment in its primary purpose.
From a holding company with interests in tourism and leisure-related enterprises, SHDI will expand and now be primarily engaged in the business of real estate development, mass community housing, townhouses and rowhouses development, residential subdivision and other massive horizontal land development.
Reyes added that as part of its realignment, SHDI will acquire the low-cost division of Empire East Land Holdings Inc. and swap a portion of its 30-percent equity in the joint venture agreement with Megaworld Corp. with completed residential units of Megaworld in the Marina residential project.
The addition of Empire East Properties Inc. will, in turn, require SHDI to increase its authorized capital stock by P1 billion, or from P2 billion to P3 billion.
Empire East Properties is the low-cost housing unit of Megaworld subsidiary Empire East Land Holdings Inc. Megaworld, on the other hand, controls 72 percent of Fairmont.
In early 1999, Megaworld and the then BW entered into a joint venture agreement for the acquisition of some P1.2-billion worth of the latter’s shares of stock in exchange for a real estate property – the Sheraton Marina Complex in Malate – owned by Megaworld.
By early 2001, or in the aftermath of the controversial price-rigging scandal in BW, Megaworld took over BW’s management and has since indicated it would be slowly divesting its stake in the company over the long-term. – Conrado Diaz Jr.