Filinvest submits highest bid for Philcomcen property

MANILA, Philippines - The Filinvest Group of Filipino-Chinese businessman Andrew Gotianun has reportedly submitted the highest bid for the Government Service Insurance System’s Philcomcen property in the Ortigas central business district.

Informed sources said GSIS is most likely to declare the Filinvest group as the winning bidder for the  2.4-hectare property along Meralco Avenue.

The minimum bid price for the idle property was P464 million or about P192,626 per square meter.

The property was foreclosed by GSIS due to the owner’s unpaid liabilities.

It has been condemned for many years now. It served as the office building for several government agencies such as the Department of Transportation and Communications, the Presidential Commission on Good Government and several radio stations.

Sources did not say which other companies  joined the bidding.

Robinsons Land Corp., which has a strong presence in the Ortigas CBD,  was one of the groups that earlier signified interest in the property.

GSIS has been trying to sell the property for several years now but couldn’t get a firm offer from interested parties.

Aside from the Philcomcen property, other GSIS assets on the auction block include the former Jai Alai property on Taft Avenue in Manila (6,470 square meters), the LA’O property in Ermita, Manila (821 square meters) and CUL Transit property in Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City (2,076 square meters) with minimum bid prices of P455.36 million, P72.25 million and P62.28 million, respectively.

Also to be disposed of is an 18,498-square meter property located at the corner of Dona Julia Vargas Avenue.  The land is being used as an impounding area by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority. The appraisal value of the lot was around P1.6 billion in 2010.

The state pension fund has an estimated P30 billion worth of property assets that may be unloaded to boost its liquidity.

GSIS, one of the local stock market’s biggest investors, had around P725 billion in total investible funds as of June.  Of that amount, 46 percent is invested in fixed income securities,29 percent (loans), 16.5 percent (equities), and  real estate (four percent).