CHI still not keen on joint ventures with foreign firms

CEBU, Philippines — Cebu Holdings Inc., may have considered joint venture deals with rival firms but it remains not keen on joining forces with overseas capitalists.

CHI however is not totally closing its doors for interested parties from outside the Philippines.

"It’s a case to case basis. But we are going to capitalize on what we have," said CHI chairperson Anna Ma. Margarita B. Dy.

CHI, an affiliate of Ayala Land Inc., (ALI) has existing joint venture projects with business rivals Aboitiz Land and Gaisano-led Taft Properties Ventures Development Corporation.

Dy, who is also senior vice president for ALI, said that while CHI, as well as ALI projects are attracting foreign buyers especially Chinese, the interest of joining forces with international capitalist is not yet a top priority of the company.

Earlier, Canada-based research and consultancy firm, Colliers International Philippines reported that a growing number of Chinese and Japanese investors are scouting for partners in the real estate development businesses, as they see a huge potential for property ventures in the Philippines.

Cebu, is among the preferred destinations these investors are looking at, as the market for properties is much wider, which spans from hotel, mall, commercial office, residential developments.

These investors are willing to pay large sums of money to partner, if not buy a majority stake of a development company in order to participate the flourishing real estate business here.

While Chinese and Japanese are now active buyers of residential condominium properties in Cebu, they are also interested to partake in the booming business.

At present, CHI has maintained five integrated properties, the Cebu Business Park, Cebu IT Park, its partnership with Aboitiz Land called Gatewalk, the P35 billion "Seagrove" project in partnership with Taft Property in Mactan Island. It is also doing a masterplan for its Southroad Properties (SRP) project.