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By Maricel E. Burgonio, Reporter
The government said it has already received the proceeds from the
sale of the shares held by the Philippine National Oil Corp. (PNOC)
in Petron Corporation, a Finance official said.
Roberto Tan, finance undersecretary, said the
proceeds from privatizing the country’s biggest oil refiner would
help the government in achieving its fiscal target for last year.
“Yes, the proceeds will augment revenues of
the government for the whole of 2008 and helped in [the] achievement
of fiscal targets,” Tan said in a text message.
The government has programmed a budget deficit
of P75 billion for 2008 but the ceiling would be raised to P160
billion for 2009.
In November, the national government posted a
deficit that amounted to P4.3 billion due to high interest payments
and expenditures, thus, pushing the fiscal gap to P66.7 billion in
January to November last year.
PNOC sold its 40-percent stake or 3.75 billion
shares in Petron Corp. to the Ashmore Group in December last year.
Ashmore, through its unit SEA Refinery Corp., acquired
government’s shareholdings for P6.85 a share, a 34-percent premium
over the Petron’s closing price of P5.10 a share on December 18,
the day before official sale took place.
This was also 5-percent higher than SEA
Refinery’s acquisition price of P6.53 a share for Saudi Aramco’s
40-percent stake in Petron.
SEA Refinery is a subsidiary of SEA Refinery
Holdings B.V., the wholly owned arm of London-based Ashmore
Investments, which acquired an additional 10.57-percent stake
through a tender offer conducted in July this year.
The government did not get the gross proceeds of
P25.7 billion from the sale and would book only P21 billion from the
sale since P4.4 billion would be set aside to repay PNOC.
The deal also comes at a very opportune time as
the government intends to use the proceeds of the sale for various
pump-priming activities this year.
In 2007, PNOC successfully privatized its
geothermal subsidiary, PNOC Energy Development Corp., when it
managed to sell its shares at P9.75, three times over the P3.20 a
share closing price a day before the deal was sealed.
Also up for sale are the Philippine National Oil
Co.-Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC) and the 120-hectare Food Terminal
Inc. Taguig City property. The government likewise plans to lease
out its property in Fujimi Cho, Chiyoda Ku, in Tokyo.
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