SM seeks end to disputes with Ayala camp

CEBU—SM Prime Holdings Inc. is eager to work with Ayala Land Inc. in the Ortigas clan’s flagship property firm OCLP Holdings Inc., with the surprise alliance unlikely to deliver significant returns for at least two years but can hold the key to solving disputes with the Ayalas like in a railway common station in Quezon City and the SM Aura complex in Bonifacio Global City (BGC), according to its top official.

Hans Sy, president of SM Prime, confirmed to the Inquirer in an interview Sunday that they were hoping to close a deal to buy out the shares of the Francisco Ortigas Group within the next 30 days.

The SM-backed group, represented by Fernando Ortigas, holds four of nine seats on the board and has been tied up until recently in legal battles with a second major faction, the Rafael Ortigas group, holder of another four seats and allied with ALI.

The disagreement, running over two years, was mainly over who should control OCLP given the interest of the two rival property conglomerates. This resulted in an impasse given that neither Ortigas faction had a controlling share. The Church, mainly through the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila, holds the remaining seat.

But on Friday, both SM Prime and ALI announced the termination of all cases regarding the ownership of OCLP and their collaboration, halting what Sy described as a “shootout” solution involving a rich cash offer by SM to all the parties to solve the deadlock between the two groups.

“It came to a point where we kind of offered a shootout. In a way, that opened both groups to say ‘do we really need to do that?’ Then we decided to sit down and talk,” Sy said at the sidelines of an event where the SM Foundation turned over 200 homes to survivors of Supertyphoon Yolanda in Barangay Polambato, Bogo, Cebu.

Property industry sources with knowledge of the deal said SM’s offer for the Fernando Ortigas-led block was about P40 billion, which would have valued the entire OCLP at close to P100 billion. Sy declined to comment on the figure, saying it has yet to be finalized.