Meralco bags Paco-Manila property for P 632.2M

The government has finally sold the two-hectare Paco-Manila property, with the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) declaring Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) as the “winning party” with an offer of P632.2 million or about 17 percent higher than the floor price of P527 million.

But PSALM clarified in a statement that this was still subject to post-qualification in order to verify that Meralco indeed met all the requirements for the negotiated sale process.

“We are very happy that after several attempts to privatize this Paco-Manila Property, we finally completed … the privatization process with a financial bid that is significantly above the minimum offer price set by the PSALM board,” said Irene Besido-Garcia, president and chief executive of PSALM.

Consisting of eight noncontiguous lots that have a total area of more than two hectares at 20,975 square meters (sq m), the Paco-Manila property is located in Isla de Provisor in Manila.

This is the former site of the decommissioned Manila Thermal Power Plant, which was sold in 2008.

Of the eight lots, the biggest has an area of 10,025.4 sq m while the smallest is described as 3.8 sq m. —sharing a land title with a 297.4-sq m lot.

PSALM said the lots were situated in a prime area, being close to a major shopping mall, several government institutions, colleges and universities and business establishments. Psalm said the area surrounding the lots was classified as medium intensity mixed zone and university cluster zone. INQ