MANILA, Philippines - The government has extended anew the bidding for the lease-and-development contract for its posh real estate property in Fujimi, Japan amid requests from prospective bidders, according to documents from the committee handling the privatization of state-owned properties in Japan.
The schedule of the signing of a service development agreement has been moved to March 9 from Feb. 23 as interested parties asked for more time to prepare the requirements, documents from the Bids and Awards Committee for the Philippine Government Properties in Japan (BAC-Japan) showed.
There are now six groups interested in the property and these are mostly real estate companies that have presence both here and in Japan.
According to the adjusted schedule, the interested parties have until Feb. 15 to submit to the committee their accomplished Terms of Reference (TOR) and pre-qualification documents. On Feb. 18, the committee will then inform the parties whether they are qualified or not to bid for the property.
The actual submission of technical and financial bids by qualified bidders is on Feb. 22. On March 9, the qualified bidder and the government are expected to sign the service development agreement.
Officials are hoping that the government would finally be able to award the contract to develop the Fujimi property this time given the strong indications of interest from prospective bidders.
The property includes the residence of the Philippine ambassador to Japan.
Last year, the government announced a Dec. 21 bidding date but was forced to scrap this amid appeals from interested parties for a longer period to prepare their offers.
Furthermore, the government also changed the mode of the privatization to a “negotiated development” under which the BAC may talk with only one party if other groups fail to meet the necessary requirements.
Under a regular bidding procedure, all interested parties would have to go through all the procedural requirements. If none of the groups meet the requirements, the government would have to declare a failure of bidding.
The government hopes to bid out the 50-year lease and development contract for the property for P3 billion.
Revenues from the lease of the Fujimi property are included in the revised P30 billion privatization target of the government for this year, which is higher than the previous goal of P12.5 billion.
The revised P30 billion privatization program for the year also includes the P13 billion from the sale of the government’s Food Terminals Inc. property in Taguig and the P12 billion from the sale of its 60 percent stake in Philippine National Oil Company-Exploration Corp.
With the government’s failure to privatize the Fujimi property and other state-owned assets last year, fiscal authorities expect the 2009 budget deficit to have hit just slightly below P300 billion or way above the budget deficit ceiling of P250 billion.
Finance Secretary Margarito Teves is expected to announce next week the government’s fiscal position for 2009.