Gov’t targets sale of Mile Long by mid-2018, no valuation yet

THE GOVERNMENT plans to sell the Mile Long property next year as part of its privatization efforts, but said it will take time to come up with an estimate of the potential proceeds.

“Mile Long, that is the new asset that we received which we should be privatizing by the middle of next year,” Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III told reporters last week.

“That’s been in our plan, that’s why we started out with the big ones.”

Mr. Dominguez said however that the government has yet to conduct a valuation of the property before it disposes of it.

“That takes a bit of time,” Mr. Dominguez said.

Finance Undersecretary Grace Karen G. Singson of the Finance department’s privatization group said that it would require two separate valuation exercises conducted by independent external parties and one valuation from the government.

Mr. Dominguez added that the department is still reviewing the privatization plan for the property.

“There are several ways to do it, and then we have to evaluate right. Do we sell it as one chunk, or separate chunks?... I don’t really know yet what is the optimum for the government.”

The Mile Long property is the subject of legal dispute between the government and Sunvar Realty Development Corp.

Last month Sunvar agreed to vacate the property following a Makati Metropolitan Trial Court order.

Mr. Dominguez has said that government property in Batangas and Las Piñas are also up for sale.

Apart from property, Mr. Dominguez said that the government also seeks to dispose of its shares of stock in Atlas Consolidated Mining & Development Corp., Benguet Corp., Chemical Industries of the Philippines, and Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co., as well as stakes in Philippine Airlines Holdings, the Puerto Azul resort, Manila Polo Club, and Makati Sports Club.

The government is expecting to raise P2 billion worth of revenue annually from the sale of its assets until 2019.

As of July, the government has so far raised P267 million from the sale of state assets, according to Bureau of the Treasury data. —