LNM Holdings willing to match Global’s NSC offer

LNM Holdings N.V. is still willing to match whatever bid Global Infrastructure Holdings Ltd. (GIHL) is offering to operate and eventually purchase the mothballed National Steel Corp. (NSC).

This was the assurance given by Eric D. Tierie, LNM’s general manager for marketing, following a courtesy call to Board of Investments (BOI) managing head Gregory Domingo last week.

According to Tierie, LNM is willing to wait for the end of the 90-day "exclusivity" negotiation period of GIHL with the NSC creditor-bank group.

If no agreement is reached between GIHL and the creditor-banks, Tierie said, LNM is willing to improve its offer to lease/purchase NSC.

This was confirmed by Trade and Industry Secretary Manuel Roxas II who revealed that GIHL had put up P250 million for the "exclusivity" arrangement.

The P250 million, Roxas explained, is "good faith" money that would go towards the preliminary rehabilitation of NSC.

However, part of the P250 million would be returned to GIHL in the event that the negotiations do not bear fruit.

As such, Roxas admitted, LNM still has a chance even though there is optimism that the negotiations with GIHL is on track.

"If the negotiation is successful GIHL could immediately takeover NSC’s facilities in Iligan City and have the steel firm operational by March," Roxas said.

Even with government’s optimism about the GIHL negotiation, LNM remains hopeful.

According to Tierie, the bid committee did not apparently appreciate LNM’s profit-sharing offer which would have added considerable value to the total offer of LNM for NSC.

Tierie did not want to elaborate to newsmen about their profit-sharing scheme, but he assured that LNM is willing to translate to a more concrete number the value of their profit-sharing offer.

Tierie urged the creditor-banks, though, to act quickly on the offer for NSC so that it does not get sidelined by the forthcoming national elections.

While LNM and GIHL may appear to be competitors, the owners of the two steel firms actually belong to the same family.