Cabinet body okays Food Terminal sale

MANILA, Philippines – The Cabinet Privatization Council has given the Department of Finance (DOF) the go-signal to sell the Food Terminal Inc. (FTI) agro-industrial property in July, Finance Undersecretary Crisanta Legaspi said yesterday.

The DOF is also on track to selling its 40 percent stake in PNOC-Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC) in September, Legaspi said.

The sale of the two big-ticket items - FTI and PNOC-EC - would complete the government’s privatization program for 2009 and enable it to meet its target to raise P30 billion from the sale of state-owned assets for the year.

“The Cabinet Privatization Council has approved the mode of privatization for FTI which is to sell 103 hectares of the 120-hectare property,” she told reporters.

The Cabinet Privatization Council is the Cabinet level body in charge of the government’s privatization program. Chaired by the Finance Secretary, it is composed of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

Legaspi said the 103 hectares would be bid out in July by the Privatization Management Office (PMO) through a block sale. The remaining 17 hectares are owned by the National Food Authority (NFA) and therefore, would be excluded from the sale.

She said the Cabinet Council has opted to sell the property through a block sale as it would attract more big-ticket developers.

FTI is a 120-hectare agro-industrial commercial estate in Taguig. It was originally built to be a food processing and consolidation center for agricultural products. It houses more than 300 small-to-medium scale companies engaged in different industries such as manufacturing, garments and electronics.

Legaspi said PMO has yet to announce the floor price for the property but earlier, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said they expect to generate at least P15 billion from FTI.

For PNOC-EC, Legaspi said the government has tapped Citibank and ATR Kim Eng as financial advisors for the sale.

The government’s 40 percent stake in PNOC-EC would be bid out by September, she said.

PNOC-EC is the upstream oil and gas subsidiary of state-owned Philippine National Oil Company. It is also into coal development, production and trading. PNOC-EC, meanwhile, monitors and administers the country’s oil and power supply.