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THE sale of the Food Terminal Inc. (FTI) property in Taguig City may
be put off due to the volatile market, according to the Department
of Finance.
Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said the
government may defer the sale of the 120-hectare property, but other
state assets like shares in Petron Corp. and Philippine National Oil
Co.- Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC) will be sold to compensate.
“We might consider, depending how the market
moves in the next few weeks and months, if it is more prudent to
defer the sale of FTI, but we would like to have a compensating
asset to allow us to meet or even exceed our projected proceeds from
privatization this year,” Teves told reporters.
The Finance department has set a P30-billion
revenue program from privatization. In January, the government
raised P8.9 billion when it sold shares in Manila Electric Co. to
state-run Government Service Insurance System.
Under the original plan, the bidding for FTI
should push through within July to September this year and it should
earn at least P15 billion for the government.
With the possible deferment of the FTI sale, the
government’s 40-percent shareholdings in Petron as well as its
stake in PNOC-EC will be the last cards for the Arroyo
administration to raise more revenues amid high inflation and a
slowing economy.
Teves said the Gokongwei Group’s P24.6
-billion offer for shares in Petron falls short of government
projections, citing the value of the company has already increased
due to the high cost of fuel. “It should be better than the
Gokongweis’ offer,” he said.
The Finance chief advised interested parties
that their offers “should be better than what was obtained or paid
by the Ashmore Group to Saudi Aramco.” The UK-based Ashmore
earlier bought Aramco’s 40-percent stake in Petron, and proposed
to buyout other shareholders of the Philippines’ largest oil
refiner.
To date, the Finance department has yet to come
up with the latest valuation for Petron shares, but industry
estimates showed that the state’s holdings are valued lower than
P24 billion. An appraisal of PNOC-EC, however, has yet to take
place.
Teves said Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP)
is being eyed as the government’s financial adviser on the
privatization plan.
“Likelihood is, it’s going to be the DBP.
They handled PNOC-EDC and they would be familiar with the process.
It’s like a template for them already,” he said.
The Finance chief, however, admitted that the
privatization of government’s stake in Petron will take more time,
as they have yet to get the formal approvals from President Arroyo,
PNOC and the Privatization Council.
“There’s a technical aspect in it. There is
this what they called first offer. That’s very technical. So we
have to allow that period to take place, otherwise without that it
would have been faster. We have to honor that as part of the
process,” Teves added.
Based on the government’s timetable for Petron,
Teves said it is possible to start the bidding process in late
October to early November.
“There is still time for us to generate the
proceeds on or before the end of the year,” he added.
-- Chino S. Leyco
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