Megaworld to match RLC bid for North Bonifacio

MANILA, Philippines - Property development giant Megaworld Corp. said it is matching the bid proposal submitted by Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC) for the Bases Conversion Development Authority’s (BCDA) 8.38-hectare North Bonifacio property along Kalayaan Road in Taguig City.

Megaworld officials told The STAR that they will put up the additional P370,000 needed to match RLC’s bid and will submit a counter proposal to RLC’s offer on or before the Aug. 28 deadline.

RLC, the property arm of the Gokongwei group, earlier submitted a P3.15 billion bid proposal for the BCDA property, a substantial improvement over the unsolicited offer of Megaworld amounting to P2.78 billion.

Under the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) guidelines on private sector-public sector joint ventures, an unsolicited proposal from a private entity to enter into a joint venture with government must be subjected to a competitive challenge.

The state-owned BCDA previously declared three real estate firms eligible to challenge Megaworld’s bid. These firms are RLC, Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) and Filinvest Land Inc. (FLI).

However, RLC was the only one that was able to submit all technical and financial proposals to challenge Megaworld’s offer.

Megaworld has been given until Aug. 28 to submit their counter proposal for RLC’s offer.

After comprehensive evaluation which will be solely based on the prices proposed, one of the two property firms will be selected as BCDA’s joint venture partner in developing and privatizing the North Bonifacio lots located in the refined Taguig development.

RLC earlier said it plans to develop the property into a mixed-use complex with residential and office components and a support retail component.

Megaworld earlier won the bidding conducted by the BCDA for the 25-hectare property that was the old Philippine Air Force barracks near Villamor Air Base in Pasay City right across the NAIA Terminal III.

 The former idle government property is now called Newport City and a group of local and foreign investors led by business taipan Andrew Tan of Megaworld plans to invest around $740 million over the next three years to transform it into a world-class integrated tourism development, the first of its kind in Southeast Asia .