Government to bid out FTI property this year

The government is confident that it can finally sell to the private sector a large chunk of the Food Terminal Inc. property in Taguig City within the year, according to Finance Secretary John Philip Sevilla.

Sevilla told reporters that FTI’s privatization “will happen this year.”

Without elaborating, Sevilla said the privatization process was in the advanced stages.

When pressed for details, he said these would be made public in due time.

In an earlier interview, Sevilla said the government last year put on the shelf the 120-hectare property’s privatization, but that the government was expected to put the FTI land back on the auction block this year.

He said that while the latest appraisal placed the value of the FTI asset at P13 billion, the government expected to earn less than that amount considering that attempts to privatize it had failed at that rate.

Ayala Land Inc., San Miguel Properties Inc. and SM Investments previously expressed interest in acquiring the property in Taguig City.

The government raised only P900 million—mainly from the sale of small-ticket items—through its privatization efforts in 2010, which was less than half of its P2-billion goal for that year.

Along with the FTI lot, Malacañang also put on hold the privatization of two other big-ticket assets including the government’s share in the Malampaya natural gas project, and the lease of a prime property in Tokyo.

These three properties were expected to raise about P30 billion, which is expected to help push down the country’s budget deficit.

Data from the Cabinet-level Development Budget Coordinating Council showed that, except for 2011, the Aquino administration had set a goal of raising P2 billion a year from privatization.

Based on the privatization plan for this year, the government is looking at raising at least P5 billion, including the block sale of some 90 million common shares representing its 8.76-percent stake in the Subic Shipyard and Engineering Inc.