PDIC to bid out 178 real estate assets

The state-owned Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) will bid out next week 178 pieces of real property it has acquired to boost the resources for the payment of debts of banks placed under its receivership.

In a statement, the state-owned firm said that based on the minimum disposal values of the properties, it expected to raise at least P181.5 million from the bidding on Nov. 8.

The assets to be sold included 173 residential and five commercial lots. The residential properties are located in various provinces while the commercial assets are in South Cotabato and Zamboanga del Sur.

Up for grabs are properties acquired by PDIC from banks that have shut down and placed under its receivership. Under its charter, PDIC is mandated to assume the liabilities and acquire the assets of banks ordered closed by the central bank.

“The PDIC continues to pursue the disposal of assets consistent with its ‘Roadmap to 2016’ of liquidating non-financial assets to benefit the creditors of closed banks,” the state-owned firm said.

Under bank closure rules, PDIC must prioritize the payment of deposit insurance claims against failed banks. Creditors of banks that have shut down may or may not be paid, depending on the amount of money PDIC raises from sale of assets of the closed banks.

Efforts of PDIC to generate as much cash as possible from asset sales are expected to benefit creditors of failed banks.

PDIC said parties interested to participate in the Nov. 8 bidding, to be held at its office in Makati City, were advised to physically inspect the properties they intended to buy, assess and verify the land titles and other documents, and determine unpaid taxes and other obligations involving the assets, before the bidding.

Bids for the properties must be accompanied by a bond amounting to 10 percent of the submitted bid, PDIC said.

“The PDIC will receive sealed bids only from direct buyers,” it said.

PDIC said the list of the properties for sale and their descriptions has been posted on its website.

The bidding on Nov. 8 will follow the last held by PDIC in August, in which it sold 130 pieces of real estate property worth nearly P244 million.

Since the start of the year to the end of September, there were 18 rural banks placed under the receivership of PDIC. These were on top of the 31 banks, mostly rural banks, ordered closed last year.

Most of the bank closures ordered by the Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas were due to capital deficiencies of the banks.