MANILA, Philippines - SM Development Corp. (SMDC), the condominium builder of mall and banking conglomerate SM Investments Corp., is pulling out of the deal to buy the National Kidney Transplant Institute (NKTI) property in Quezon City.
The property firm will instead focus on developing its land holdings in Metro Manila, its top executive said.
SMDC vice-chairman and CEO Henry Sy Jr. said the company which already paid around P300 million of the P783-million purchase price of the property occupied by NKTI, has crafted a waiver but the downpayment should be returned.
“If they do not want (to sell the property), it’s okay for us because we have many properties but they should return the money,†said Sy.
In October, SMDC won the bidding for the two lots totaling 1.63 hectares offered by the National Housing Authority (NHA).
The sale, however was reportedly called off early this year after NKTI management reached an agreement with NHA to revive negotiations involving the property.
As the legal owner of the NKTI property, NHA sought for additional funds to pay off its own obligations to other government-owned agencies like Housing Development Mutual Fund or Pag-IBIG Fund.
NKTI said the sales would put its operations in jeopardy. One of the two areas is currently used as parking space while the other is the subject of a dispute involving alleged illegal settlers.
Moving forward, SMDC will focus on other projects.
For this year, SMDC will spend approximately P20 billion in capital expenditures: P13 billion for project development and P7 billion for landbanking.
The condominium builder will launch four new projects and expand three existing developments in Metro Manila, which will allow to introduce 13,000 units this year, almost double the 7,000 units in 2012.