BSP to bid out management of Evercrest golf club

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has ended up owning the Evercrest Golf Club Resort—a luxury property in Nasugbu, Batangas, that it had foreclosed—after attempts to sell the property failed.

BSP Deputy Governor Juan de Zuñiga said that since the prime property did not attract investors, the central bank was considering the option of bidding out its management.

The last valuation for Evercrest was P1.7 billion.

The BSP has no intention of managing and running the property on its own, saying it did not want to engage in activities outside of its core functions of conducting monetary policy, regulating the banking sector and supervising the country’s payments system.

The central bank said that having another entity, especially one with the experience in running resorts and golf clubs, take charge of the property’s operations would be the prudent thing to do.

The BSP said it was preparing the administrative requirements for the bidding of the property’s management.

Evercrest was previously owned by Orient Bank. After a long-drawn court battle, the BSP won the rights over the property and finally got the title to the asset from the Registry of Deeds in December 2010.

The old Orient Bank, owned by businessman Jose Go, made cash advances from the BSP to address liquidity problems before it finally shut down in 1999. Earlier reports said the bank obtained more than P5 billion in loans from the central bank.

Since Evercrest alone was not enough to cover the liabilities of Orient Bank to the BSP, the monetary agency is looking at other assets of the failed bank that it could go after.

The BSP wants to collect the unpaid cash advances from borrowing banks to help improve its financial condition. Last year, the BSP incurred a net loss of P33.69 billion, which was attributed mainly to its foreign exchange operations.