GSIS to sell Port Area lots
Credit to Author: MAYVELIN U. CARABALLO, TMT| Date: Tue, 04 Jun 2019 16:28:51 +0000
STATE-RUN Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) has revived its plan to sell its property in Manila’s Port Area, which has a total zonal value of over P37 billion.
“I would like to inform you that we will again pursue our desire to sell the non-performing asset in that area,” GSIS President and General Manager Jesus Clint Aranas said at a briefing on Tuesday.
The property, which consists of two lots with land areas of 672,645 and 109,212 square meters, is near Pier 2 of the Manila North Harbor and the Negros Navigation Ferry Terminal in Tondo.
Aranas explained that the plan’s revival was on the back of the current zonal valuation of the property released by the Department of Finance.
The property’s valuation as of May reached P37.45 billion, higher than last year’s valuation of more than P25 billion.
“With the new zonal valuation, we already have a valuation gain of P11.481 billion for 2019 for these properties,” Aranas said.
According to him, the state pension fund decided to sell the property because it had not been generating any income since the early 1970s, even though the International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) currently occupies it.
“The property is currently occupied by ICTSI. Supposedly, they have an agreement with the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA), [which] does not have [a] title [to] it,” Aranas said.
“So the awkwardness there is that I am in a situation wherein there is a property owned by GSIS not earning rental income or whatsoever, and no standing agreement whatsoever,” he added.
The GSIS chief also noted that unpaid rentals for the property hit close to P1 billion a year.
He also said the pension fund had sent notices to ICTSI about the unpaid rentals, were ignored.
Although he promised to chase the Razon-led port operator over that, Aranas said the company was also welcome to participate when GSIS opens bidding for the property.
Asked for the timeline of the sale, Aranas said GSIS would immediately bid out the property once it gets approval from its board.
“The sale will happen this year,” he added.
Q1 performance
Meanwhile, GSIS also reported that its net income surged to P38.7 billion in the first quarter of 2019, up 327 percent from P9.05 billion in the same period last year.
The fund attributed the growth from the increase in stock-market values, interest income and premium contributions.
Gilda Bocanegra, GSIS executive vice president for the finance sector, said its public equities portfolio had accounted for about 20 percent of total assets since the Philippine Stock Exchange index increased by 6 percent to 7,920.93, compared with last year’s ending level.
The remaining increase was said to have brought about by the increase in interest income due to the pension fund’s new loan programs, and the growth in premium contributions due to the rise in the number of active members, from 1.7 million last year to 1.8 million this year.
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