ALI to develop bourse’s new HQ

The Philippine Stock Exchange expects to sign a deal with property giant Ayala Land Inc. early next year for the development of the local bourse’s future unified trading floor and corporate headquarters in Bonifacio Global City.

According to PSE president Hans Sicat, the bourse will get about 6,000 square meters of office space in a new complex within BGC’s West Super Block, right in the middle of BGC’s central business district, to be developed by ALI. The PSE will have the right to name the building.

This office space is in exchange for the 2,000-square meter parcel of land originally donated to the PSE by the Fort Bonifacio developers as the site for its future headquarters.

Ayala will also develop the old site and turn it into a residential complex.

“The way it’s designed, it’s a big block,” Sicat said, noting that the structure would be something like the IFC complex in Hong Kong, which has several buildings in the same complex.

Sicat said the property deal would be signed by January, while ground-breaking likely would happen within the first semester. Construction is expected to be finished in five years although the PSE is hoping this could be shortened.

To ensure an arm’s length valuation, the PSE has hired independent consultants to determine the value of assets to be swapped.

“We look at it over time. Hopefully, it won’t cost us because we’ll be selling both our locations today, plus there will be a swap,” Sicat said.

The stock exchange currently operates two trading floors—one at Tower One on Ayala Avenue, Makati and another at Tektike building in Ortigas. It has already put up for sale its property in Ortigas and centralized corporate headquarters in Makati.

The PSE was originally promised to have a new building in the Global City by 2004, but the local bourse agreed to waive this after much haggling nine years ago.

Ayala Land, which took over the Fort Bonifacio project from the Metro Pacific group in 2002, further deferred the construction of the future PSE headquarters given the slump in the high-end property market.