Government eyes more than P9 billion from sale of Food Terminal

MANILA,Philippines - The Aquino administration is eyeing to sell the Food Terminal Inc. (FTI) property in Taguig at a price higher than the P7 to P9-billion tab set by the previous government for the agro-industrial estate.

Newly appointed Finance Undersecretary for Privatization John Philip Sevilla said the sale of the FTI property is a priority for the administration. “We would like to get that done,” Sevilla said.

He said the department is already in talks with interested investors as he expressed optimism that the property would be sold at a higher price. “We’re doing appraisals,” he said, adding that one recent valuation they got put the price of the property at P16 billion.

The previous administration lowered the selling price of the property to P7 to P9 billion. However, Sevilla said, this price is “too low.” Nonetheless, he said nothing is final yet. “We’re still continuing negotiations,” he said.

The property has been offered to giant developers including the Ayala Group, Robinson’s Land and Henry Sy’s SM Development Corp.

Last year, private property developers snubbed a public bidding for the property, resulting in a failure of bidding.

Four developers including the Ayala Land Inc. and the Gokongweis’ Robinsons Land Corp. earlier expressed interest in vying for the FTI property but none of them submitted bids during last year’s sale.

Once the government and the prospective buyer agree on a price, the DOF would then subject the offer to a Swiss Challenge, wherein other investors would be given the right to match the bid for the property.

FTI is a 120-hectare agro-industrial commercial estate in Taguig. It was originally built to be a food processing and consolidation center for agricultural products. It houses more than 300 small-to-medium scale companies engaged in different industries such as manufacturing, garments and electronics.

Of the 120-hectare property, the government is selling 103 hectares because the remaining 17 hectares are owned by the National Food Authority (NFA).

FTI is among the three big-ticket items the Arroyo administration had attempted to sell.

The two other assets are the government’s stake in Philippine National Oil Company-Exploration Corp. (P17 billion) and its real estate property in Fujimi, Japan (P3 billion).

Sevilla said the sale of these two items are still under review.

The government is counting on the FTI sale to boost revenues and plug an estimated record deficit of P325 billion this year.