Talks between BHI, Resom over Puerto Azul project fail

MANILA, Philippines—A potential deal between listed firm Boulevard Holdings Inc. (BHI) and Korea’s Resom Resorts for the redevelopment of Puerto Azul near Manila Bay has fallen through due to disagreements over the contract price.

In a disclosure, BHI said it failed to reach a deal with the South Korean firm on the lease price for its property in Puerto Azul. Reson Resorts has, instead, opted to invest in Subic Freeport.

“We know that some of our shareholders and market participants were following up on this confirmatory event, especially as the possibility of this was mentioned in an earlier disclosure,” BHI chairman and CEO J. Marcel Panlilio said on Tuesday.

“In spite of the 3.5-hour travel time from the airport compared to just one hour to Puerto Azul, and upon the insistence of all the people surrounding Resom chair Shin, they have chosen to proceed with their Resom Subic project,” Panlilio said.

Shares of BHI, the holding firm of the Panlilios for resort development and operation, sizzled at the local stock market in August following the disclosure of additional information on the company’s acquisition of 100 percent of a property firm called Cala Paniman Inc.

“Cala will be used to develop, as co-master partner, the entire 3,000-hectare Puerto Azul Complex (less the already developed 200-hectare portion), with various selected foreign and domestic developers, having the right specialty resort-recreation skills,” BHI earlier said.

The disclosure said BHI was expecting to sign a joint venture over Cala’s 21-hectare leisure estate project Crestagrande Subdivision along Paniman Bay in Cavite.

The project calls for vertical and horizontal development, in which the BHI subsidiary will get a 20- to 32-percent share plus a share in revenue exceeding targets.

BHI said it had set a 40-year lease price of P4.7 million per hectare, per month for 77 hectares of developed land at the Palicpican Valley. This per-hectare price was higher than the lease price for 230 hectares of raw coastline that Resom was offered at Subic Bay.