UCPB, Metro Pacific may tie up for P600-M project in Batangas

United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) is planning a joint venture with the Metro Pacific group for the development of its White Cove resort project in Nasugbu, Batangas.

Despite its financial travails, UCPB said several of its key assets have been attracting prospective investors who want to join up with the bank while others are keenly interested in acquiring its portfolio of foreclosed assets.

UCPB Executive Vice President Andrew Alcid told reporters that Metro Pacific Corp. through its subsidiary Landco Pacific, is seriously interested in the White Cove project since the area is adjacent to its plush Terrazas de Punta Fuego project.

Alcid said White Cove would be developed as a joint venture project and Landco is being groomed as the most possible partner for the bank although the agreement has not been formalized pending the resolution of UCPB’s recapitalization problem.

Alcid said the bulk of UCPB’s real or property owned and acquired (ROPOA) assets have already been packaged as joint venture projects and only about 30 to 40 percent of its ROPOA portfolio are actually earmarked for eventual sale under the new Special Purpose Vehicles Act.

"We have a number of extremely attractive assets like White Cove and we are setting those aside because there are investors who are interested in them individually. We plan to go into as many joint ventures as we can because the bank doesn’t want to give up the upside on these projects," Alcid explained.

"We also have a number of smaller assets, mostly individual houses and lots that could be in the SPV portfolio but only about 30 to 40 percent of our total ROPOA in terms of peso value," he said.

Alcid said these assets are outside those already involved in the on-going talks with the Philippine Deposit Insurance Co. (PDIC) which is planning to buy some of the bank’s bad assets as part of its rehabilitation.

However, Alcid admitted these undertakings would not push through and the bank would not be able to maximize the potentials of its asset portfolio if it would not be able to recapitalize.

For the White Cove project, Alcid said UCPB would be part of the development of the facility, possibly with Landco which already has tie-ups with the Pedrosa and Roxas families, to build a new leisure estate in Batangas worth up to P600 million.

This project is the second phase of the Terrazas de Punta Fuego project and White Cove could be part of Landco’s master plan for the area. Landco earlier revealed that Punta Fuego 2 had at least 300 lots for sale while Punta Fuego 1 had 550 to 600 lots. Despite the slump in the property sector, the company said there is an increasing demand for high-end development in the area.

UCPB, however, has to come through with its planned rehabilitation which the Department of Finance earlier said would take at least 10 years under the P20-billion rescue plan being studied by the government and the bank management.

Finance secretary Jose Isidro Camacho said the rescue plan in its present form was so far the only plan on the table that addressed the shareholder issue and the difficulty of recapitalizing the bank whose ownership is still under question.

Although the debate is not over yet, Camacho said the consensus was that the plan would not require the approval of the shareholders or of Malacanang which he said is out of the discussion at this point.

"At the very least, it will stabilize the financial position of the bank," Camacho said.

Under the plan, the Philippine Deposit Insurance Company (PDIC) would shell out P20 billion to yank UCPB out of its financial rut first buying by P13-billion worth of bad loans and then acquiring another P7-billion worth of subordinated debt.