First Philippine Holdings wins bid for Philtown property in Batangas

MANILA, Philippines – The Lopez-led First Philippine Holdings Corp. has won the bidding for a 46.5-hectare property located at the Philtown Industrial Park, Tanauan, Batangas, thereby expanding its industrial estate portfolio.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday, FPH said it had been selected as the winning bidder for the Philtown property, consisting of land and improvements with a total area of 464,961 square meters.

The land was bid out by Brilliante Realty Corp. while Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corporation owns the improvements.

FPH has an existing interest in industrial estate development through a 70-percent stake in First Philippine Industrial Park (FPIP), which also operates in Tanauan and Sto. Tomas, Batangas. Its partner is Sumitomo Corp., which has a 30 percent stake. FPIP is registered with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA).

“The Philtown acquisition will provide FPIP reserve land for incoming locators. Our current site in Tanauan and Sto. Tomas Batangas is already full. A 65-hectare adjacent property we acquired from SMC (San Miguel Corp.) two years ago was almost completely sold out in one year,” Danilo Gozo, FPH executive adviser on corporate communications, said in a text message.

“FPH thru FPIP will continue to invest in industrial estates because they create jobs and help stimulate the economy,” Gozo added.

Southern Luzon, referring to the Cavite-Laguna-Batangas, Rizal-Quezon growth corridor, has a critical mass of industrial estates and is well known to foreign locators. But due to the surge in demand in recent years, available space is dwindling. Many property developers, on the other hand, typically tend to prioritize residential over industrial estate projects where yields are better compared to industrial estate development.

A usual criticism on the Philippine growth model is the country’s jump from agrarian to services-oriented economy while skipping the manufacturing-led phase, which is critical in creating more jobs especially for low- and semi-skilled workers.