7 property giants expected at tomorrow's FTI bid

MANILA, Philippines - The bidding for the Food Terminal Inc. (FTI) property in Taguig will proceed tomorrow, the Privatization and Management Office (PMO) said over the weekend.

The public bidding will be held at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) in Makati City.

The bidding was originally scheduled for Aug. 8 but the PMO decided to move the date to Aug. 14 to give interested parties more time to prepare their offers.

“Per bidding rules, the bid boxes shall open for the submission of bids at 10 a.m. and close at exactly 11:30 a.m.,” the PMO said.

The bids will be opened immediately after the bid boxes close. Bids submitted after this will be returned, the PMO also said.

The government is bidding out 74 hectares of the 103-hectare FTI property.

Seven of the country’s biggest business groups are vying for the agro-industrial estate, which is up for bidding for a minimum price of P10.2 billion.

The potential bidders are the Gokongwei owned Robinson’s Land Corp., Andrew Tan’s Empire East Land, Ayala Land Inc., the Lopezes’ Rockwell Land Corp., the Sy family’s SM Land Inc., Andrew Gotianun’s Filinvest Land Inc. and Century Properties Group Inc., owned by the family of Amb. Jose Antonio.

The government had tried but failed to bid out the FTI property, with the Arroyo administration even lowering the floor price to P7 billion to P8 billion. One valuation pegged the value of the property at P12 billion.

The last attempt to auction FTI was in 2009 when private companies snubbed a public bidding for the property.

Proceeds of the sale will go to the Department of Agrarian Reform for the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program and to the Department of Agriculture.

The 103-hectare FTI agro-industrial complex is one the largest industrial complexes in Metro Manila and is currently home to more than 300 companies.

It provides industrial and commercial lots for medium-to-long term leases, and industrial buildings with standard-sized stalls for office, warehouse or small-scale processing operations.

With the sale, the government expects economic activities in Taguig City and nearby areas to flourish as employment increases and transport linkages in the complex improves.

The Aquino administration hopes to sell the property at a price higher than the tab set by the previous government for the agro-industrial estate.