Gokongwei group to bid for FTI property in Taguig

MANILA, Philippines –  The Gokongwei group’s Robinsons Land Corp. has signified to the Aquino administration its intent to bid for the Food Terminals Inc. property in Taguig, government sources said yesterday.

Sought for confirmation, Finance Undersecretary for Privatization John Philip Sevilla said the agency that is privy to the matter is the government’s Privatization and Management Office (PMO). “They’re the ones selling the property,” said Sevilla.

He nonetheless welcomed Robinson’s interest in the property as he expressed hopes that other developers would also submit offers for the agro-industrial estate.

Sevilla said the government may now enter into negotiated bids for the property as previous public biddings have failed.

“There is no specific bidding date yet but we can enter into negotiated bid,” Sevilla said.

The Aquino administration hopes to sell the property at a price higher than the P7 to P9-billion tab set by the previous government for the agro-industrial estate.

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

In 2009, private property developers snubbed a public bidding for the property, resulting in a failure of bidding.

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 Macapagal-Arroyo administration had attempted to sell.

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).

Sevilla said the sale of these two items is still under review.

The government is counting on the FTI sale to boost revenues and plug an estimated budget deficit of P290 billion this year.

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