PWC, 3 others eye PNOC property dev’t subsidiary

Global banking and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers has signified interest in bidding for the Philippine National Oil Co.(PNOC)’s 53-percent stake in its real estate arm PNOC Development Management Corp. (PDMC).

PDMC vice president for operations and project development Augusto Palomar said PricewaterhouseCoopers joins three other unidentified bidders which include two local groups and foreign firm.

Palomar, however, said PDMC has yet to finalize the terms of reference for the actual bidding.

"The TOR is still being finalized. We will start bidding by the third quarter. We’re still on schedule. We are hopeful to privatize by the end of the year," the official said.

Within this quarter, PDMC is set to appoint a financial advisor for the privatization plan, he said.

Palomar said PDMC is confident it could carry out the privatization process within the year since among PNOC’s subsidiaries, PDMC is relatively debt-free.

"We are a profitable company. We have not borrowed money, it’s a solid company, and we’re confident we can privatize it as scheduled," Palomar said.

Palomar said the company is bullish that it will meet its P50 million net income target this year.

"There’s a threshold limit. Our benchmark is P50 million before we privatize, and we are confident that we will meet that this year," he noted.

PNOC has a 98 percent stake in PDMC. Based on the privatization plan, PNOC will retain 35 percent of its stake in PDMC, sell 10 percent to the general public and the remaining 53 percent to a strategic partner.

Florendo Garcia, PDMC finance and administrative manager, said the firm made P3 million in 2001, P7 million in 2002 and is projected to rake in P28 million in net income at the end of 2003.

PDMC, valued at P1.3 billion, handles all the industrial real estate development and management activities of PNOC. It currently manages a 123-hectare property in Rosario, Cavite.