Philrealty drops property-for-share deal with affiliate

A deal back in 2018 made by property developer Philippine Realty and Holdings Corp. (Philrealty) to take over some real estate assets of affiliate Meridian Assurance Corp. (MAC) has been aborted.

“MAC recently started investing in real estate to generate capital gains and recurring rental income since it is no longer operating as a nonlife insurance company,” Philrealty said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday. “Thus, MAC decided to just maintain its investment in the above-cited properties, consistent with the abovementioned strategy.”

MAC agreed to swap various property assets, which back in 2018 had an average total market value of P81.21 million, in exchange for around 150.4 million shares of Philrealty.

In support of such new strategy, MAC’s controlling stockholder, Chinook Capital Holdings Corp. (CCHC), “deemed it a more judicious use of limited resources to allocate and provide funds directly to MAC instead of using up funds to own 100 percent of MAC,” the disclosure said.

MAC, which is 70-percent owned by CCHC, thus informed Philrealty that it no longer wished to push through with the property-for-share transaction. The assets consisted of three office condominium units and six parking slots in the Tektite Towers and two commercial condominium units and two parking slots in the Icon Plaza.

Led by the Lanuza family, Philrealty is the developer of urban projects such as The Alexandra, Philippine Stock Exchange Centre, The Alexis, La Isla, Casa Miguel, Andrea North and SkyVillas Tower.

Philrealty officially exited court-assisted corporate rehabilitation in 2017, becoming the first publicly listed company battered by the Asian financial crisis to graduate from court receivership.