Ramos holding firm divests stake in local Kuok unit

MANILA, Philippines - The Ramos family’s investment holding firm has divested its minority stake in the local property unit of Malaysia’s Kuok Group.

In a regulatory filing, Anglo Philippine Holdings Corp. said it sold 214.145 million shares of Shang Properties Inc. through a special block sale.

Prior to the transaction, Anglo Holdings held a 4.5-percent stake in real estate firm Shang Properties.

The transaction value was not disclosed but at the closing price of P1.94 per share, the shares sold were worth P706.67 million.

Company officials were not immediately available for comment yesterday.

As of end-2012, Anglo Holdings’ shares in Shang Properties were valued at P642.437 million, up from P462.554 million late in 2011.

“The company received a total of P17.55 million in cash dividends from Shang Properties in 2012,” Anglo Holdings said.

Shang Properties is banking on the property boom as it builds One Shangri-La Place, the company’s largest development to date. It comprises twin skyscrapers housing 1,304 units above the six-level Shangri-La Mall.

Another project is the 64-story Shang Salcedo Place in Makati. Estimated to cost around P5 billion, the project offers a total of 778 units, targeted for turnover to residents by 2015.

Shang Properties is also looking to start selling 98 large apartments in Shangri-La Hotel at the Fort next year. The P18-billion, 60-story Shangri-La Hotel at the Fort in Bonifacio Global City  has 577 rooms and almost 100 hotel residences. Shang Properties is also into the business of shopping mall (Shangri-La Plaza Mall), office space rental (Enterprise Center in Makati) and hotel operations (Shangri-La Hotel).

Given the divestment, Anglo Holdings’ remaining property investments are the 15.79-percent share in North Triangle Depot Commercial Corp. and 15.79-percent stake in MRT Development Corp. that generates revenues from concessionaire rentals and advertising fees in the Metro Rail Transit stations.

Major investments of Anglo Holdings are exploration firm Vulcan Materials Corp. (100 percent), United Paragon Mining Corp. (21.81 percent), and gold and copper miner Atlas Consolidated Mining & Development Corp. (8.27 percent). It also has minority shares in several oil exploration blocks in resource-rich Northwest Palawan, Sulu Sea and onshore Mindoro.

The Ramos family is behind National Book Store Inc., the country’s largest bookstore chain operating under brands National Bookstore, Powerbooks, NBS Express and Bestsellers.