Aboitiz seals P1.36-B Batangas ecozone deal

The Aboitiz group recently entered Batangas’ industrial estate market when it closed a P1.36-billion deal to buy 60 percent of the company that owns and operates the 485-hectare LiMA Technology Center.

The deal is expected to boost the country’s manufacturing sector.

In a disclosure posted on the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday, Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. announced that its property arm, Aboitiz Land Inc., signed a deal to buy out the stake held by Alsons Land Corp. in LiMA Land Inc. (LLI).

With this deal, the Aboitiz group becomes the new joint venture partner of Japanese firm Marubeni Corp., which holds the remaining 40 percent interest in LLI.

LiMA Technology Center is an industrial park registered with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority. It currently hosts 37 locators employing over 24,000 people. Locators are engaged in various manufacturing operations ranging from automobile components and motorcycles to printers, plastic moldings and LCD projectors.

As a Peza-registered zone, locators enjoy certain incentives such as income tax holidays and exemption from duties and taxes on imported capital equipment.

In a statement, Alsons Consolidated Resources chair and president Tomas Alcantara said the divestment by its property arm was in line with the group’s thrust to “make power generation in Mindanao and other key areas of the Philippines the core focus of its business.”

However, he said, property development would remain a key part of ACR and the Alcantara group’s portfolio.

The purchase price includes LLI’s interests in wholly owned subsidiaries Lima Utilities Corp. and Lima Water Corp. The buyout is expected to close no later than 30 days after the execution of the sale and purchase agreement, the Aboitiz disclosure said.

“This agreement is in the best interests of LTC’s locators, employees and the host cities of Lipa and Malvar. We look forward to a smooth transition for the industrial park’s new management and the new members of the board of directors,” Alcantara said.

Aboitizland may have just entered the Calabarzon (the Southern Tagalog growth hub comprising Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) region, but it already operates two economic zones in its home market of Cebu. Through its subsidiary, Cebu Industrial Park Developers Inc., Aboitizland is the developer and operator of two economic zones: the Mactan Economic Zone II in Barangay Mactan, Lapu-Lapu City; and the West Cebu Industrial Park in Balamban, Cebu.

Alcantara said LiMA Land, and subsidiaries LiMA Utilities and LiMA Water, have been an important part of the Alcantara group.

“The LiMA Technology Center has made its mark as a key player in the industrial estate segment within the very competitive Calabarzon market. With the present boom in the industrial real estate industry, the Lima group is perfectly positioned to take advantage of this market uptrend,” he said.

The Alcantara Group, through various subsidiaries, is engaged in aquaculture and agribusiness, real property development and services. It has been an active player in Mindanao and the rest of the country for over 50 years.