Mondragon resets meeting of stockholders to March 2004

Publicly-listed holding firm Mondragon International Phils. Inc. (MIPI) has postponed its shareholders’ meeting scheduled yesterday to allow it more time to pursue negotiations with potential investors and settle its obligations to government agencies in connection with the lease of the Mimosa Leisure Estate in Clark, Pampanga.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, MIPI chairman and chief executive officer Jose Antonio U. Gonzalez said the company’s shareholders would instead meet on March 15, 2004, or six months later.

"The meeting was rescheduled to allow the company enough time to pursue negotiations with concerned government agencies as well as with investors who will provide additional funds both to settle its obligations to the government and normalize operations within the Mimosa Leisure Estate," Gonzalez said.

It was the second time that MIPI had to reset its stockholders meeting, as it first did last year, to flex more time in holding various discussions involving Mimosa, a plush leisure resort inside the Clark Economic Zone.

Mimosa has a 36-hole championship golf course, a 304-room five-star hotel, various deluxe furnished villas and a gaming casino.

"While we have been holding negotiations with the investors, they have asked for more time in view of what they call political uncertainty and country risk," Gonzalez added.

Last week, MIPI disclosed that its wholly-owned subsidiary Mondragon Leisure Resorts Corp. (MLRC) had cancelled the memorandum of understanding it had entered into with Clark Development Corp. (CDC) for failing to reach a compromise on the operations and management of Mimosa.

Gonzalez said the company was constrained to rescind the MOU for various reasons, but added they are working with CDC to find a suitable investor or groups of investors in Mimosa.

CDC, however, argued that MLRC has forfeited its claim to Mimosa since it failed to meet the Sept. 8 deadline for the payment of more than P450 million in rental and tax arrears to CDC, hence had no right to unilaterally rescind the MOU. – Zinnia dela Peña