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By Likha C. Cuevas-Miel, Reporter
The holding firm of the Lopez family will
dispose of its entire stake in Medical City to help defray its
outstanding debts as part of its restructuring program, Benpres
Holdings Corp. disclosed Tuesday.
The company reported it sold its 18-percent
holding in Professional Service Inc., owner and operator of Medical
City, for P600 million to an affiliate of Lombard Asia III.
According to Benpres, LAIII is the third
Asian-centered private equity fund managed by Lombard Investments
Inc., an international private equity investment manager that
operates in Bangkok, Hong Kong and San Francisco. Lombard has made
more than 75 controlling and significant minority investments in
Asia and North America.
Sources involved in the transaction said the
company can let go of its stake in the hospital as it is not part of
Benpres’ core businesses and proceeds of the sale would help pay
for its obligations.
At end-2007, Benpres trimmed its outstanding
debts to $367 million from $400 million, of which P2 billion are
long-term commercial papers (LTCPs) and $150 million are Eurobond
notes at 7.875-percent interest. About $210 million are contingent
obligations of its subsidiary, Bayan Telecommunications.
In November last year, co-obligators Benpres and
Lopez Inc. purchased $32.3 million of the $43-million worth of debt
held by Asian Infrastructure Fund, which at the time represented
around 10 percent of the former’s total outstanding principal debt
at the time. Benpres shouldered $25.8 of the purchased obligations
while Lopez Inc. paid $6.4 million.
Benpres also bought back P5.8-million, or 60
percent of the P9.5-million worth of debts from five holders of its
LTCPs.
It originally incurred debts amounting to around
$560 million in 2002, a quarter of which came from its operations of
Maynilad Water Services Inc., which was later auctioned off to the
DMCI-Metro Pacific Investments Corp. consortium.
The firm’s management earlier said it
continues to hold discussions with its creditors regarding the
retirement of the company’s debts or possible agreements to
restructure financing of these obligations.
Last year, Benpres profits improved by 26
percent to P5.928 billion year on year, while net income
attributable to the equity holders of the parent grew by 24.8
percent to P5.365 billion. Its consolidated revenues went up 26
percent from previous year to P17.020 billion. The company received
P1.266 billion in dividends from broadcasting network ABS-CBN, First
Philippine Holdings Corp. (FPHC), First Philippine Infrastructure
Development Corp. and Rockwell Land. It was also able to collect
P104 million from the sale of Digitel shares last year.
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