GSIS bent on disposing assets

The government Service Insurance System (GSIS) will auction off three more real estate properties in April and considers selling more this year.

According to Robert Vergara, GSIS president and general manager, the state-run pension fund hopes to boost its liquidity by taking advantage of the healthy demand for properties.

“At present, interest rates are still low and many [corporate entities] are still considering buying properties,” Vergara told reporters last week.

The GSIS has identified the properties to be auctioned off: the former Jai Alai property in Manila, the LA’O property in Manila, and the Polymedic 1 property in Mandaluyong City.

These assets were part of a set the GSIS tried to auction off in December last year. All assets, except for the three properties, were successfully sold at prices higher than that  set by the government fund.

But the GSIS has high hopes that the three properties will be disposed of in the coming auction, Vergara said, citing favorable market indicators.

The former Jai Alai property on the corner of T.M. Kalaw Street and Taft Avenue in Manila measures 6,470 square meters. It was given a floor price of P455.36 million in last year’s auction. The LA’O property in Ermita,  which measures 821 square meters, was assigned a floor price of P72.25 million. The Polymedic 1 property on Edsa,  which measures 495 square meters, was given a minimum bid price of P42.57 million.

“We target to sell these properties in April. If the outcome is favorable, we may try selling more assets,” Vergara said.

Once it concludes the sale of the properties in April, the GSIS will schedule another auction for its real estate assets in Bonifacio Global City (BGC), Vergara said.

The GSIS has three properties in BGC: One measures 8,000 square meters, while the others each measure 1,600 square meters, he said.

Vergara said the GSIS took its cue from the Social Security System (SSS), after it successfully sold a piece of property in BGC to Clark Quay Holdings Inc. for P2.33 billion—higher than the floor price of P2.24 billion.

At the end of 2013, GSIS assets amounted to P786 billion.