Government in advanced stage of negotiations for FTI sale

 MANILA, Philippines - The Aquino administration will attempt to sell the Food Terminal Inc. (FTI) property in Taguig, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said yesterday.

The government is already in the advanced stages of negotiations with an interested buyer, he added.    

Once the government and the prospective buyer agree on the price, the Finance department would then subject the offer to a Swiss Challenge, wherein other investors would be given the right to match the bid for the property.

“With FTI, we are already in the advanced stages,” Purisima said.

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.

Of the 120-hectare property, the government is selling 103 hectares because the remaining 17 hectares are owned by the National Food Authority (NFA).

FTI is among the three big-ticket items the Arroyo administration had attempted to sell for many years now.

The two other assets are the government’s stake in Philippine National Oil Company-Exploration Corp. (P17 billion) and its real estate property in Fujimi, Japan (P3 billion).

Purisima said the sale of these two items are still under review.

From a previous valuation of P15.9 billion in 2009, the FTI property is now for sale for only P7.5 billion to P9 billion.

In early February, the government also lowered the selling price of the property to P9 to P10 billion from a previous estimate of P13 billion.

Sources said the property has been offered to giant developers including the Ayala Group, Robinson’s Land and Henry Sy’s SM Development Corp.

Last year, private property developers snubbed a public bidding for the property, resulting in a failure of bidding.

Four developers including the Ayala Land Inc. and the Gokongweis’ Robinsons Land Corp. earlier expressed interest in vying for the FTI property but none of them submitted bids during last year’s sale.

The government is counting on the FTI sale to boost revenues and plug an estimated record deficit of P300 billion this year.

Aside from FTI, Purisima said the government is also looking into other state-owned assets that may be privatized by the Aquino administration. He said the government is now doing an inventory of assets that may be put on the auction block.