THOUGH the government has yet to finalize its plans on how to divest off its shares at the state-run explorations company, Finance Secretary Margarito B. Teves told reporters that the bidding for the government’s remaining stake in Philippine National Oil Co.-Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC) will be undertaken next year.

“We still don’t have yet a definite plan how PNOC-EC will dissolve. And maybe in our next meeting we may find with some clarity what will be the direction of PNOC-EC and the estimate amount we can get,” said the finance chief.

Teves said they have earlier estimated to generate about P6 billion in proceeds from the sale of PNOC-EC.

Teves expressed optimism that the government will get to fetch a higher price than what they estimate, jokingly pointing at his earlier projections that the sale of the government’s stake in PNOC-Energy Development Corp. will fetch the government P36 billion.

On November 21 PNOC declared Red Vulcan Holdings Corp. as the highest bidder offering to acquire the government’s remaining 60-percent stake in PNOC-EDC for P58.5 billion.

Red Vulcan Holdings Corp. is a consortium led by First Gen Corp. and Iceland-based Spalmare Holdings B.V. and Prime Terracota Holdings Corp.

PNOC president Antonio M. Cailao earlier said the company might bid out PNOC-EC either in December this year or January next year.

The PNOC official said that it has tapped the services of Citibank to be the financial advisor for the sale of PNOC-EC.

 With the 60 percent of PNOC-EC targeted to be privatized, it will give the winner bidder control in the 10-percent stake in Malampaya.

Unlike earlier targets to turn PNOC into a world-class national oil company, the government has changed its thrust and privatized PNOC’s subsidiaries to raise funds.

Cailao, however, said the privatization in itself is good.

“What we should look at are the benefits of privatization—which will result in generating more economic activity given that the private hands have more wherewithal to go really where they want to go and not hampered by regulations and things like that,” Cailao said.

He pointed out that privatization will give the government more resources to serve the people.

PNOC-EC earlier said it has yet to decide as to which privatization model it will use in divesting the government’s stake in its company. “We are eyeing at least three methods of privatization, such as secondary public offering, strategic sale and private placement,” said PNOC-EC.

PNOC-EC, on the other hand, stressed that issuing additional shares to public remains the lucrative option given the strong bull run at the local bourse, as well as existing favorable international and domestic investor sentiment.

“An additional public offering is a mode of sale for companies already listed on an exchange such as PNOC-EC on the PSE, which will allow the company and its shareholders to raise funds through the capital markets,” the company said.

PNOC-EC said that issuing additional shares will also help them command shorter time to complete the offer, and also add liquidity that will further increase the value of its shares.

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—At a forum with members of Filipino and Taiwanese business councils at the Formosa Hall of Subic Bay Gateway Park (SBGP), Dr. Raymond Ricardo, president and chief executive officer of TotalMED, said the medical-tourism market in Subic and Clark, has “huge potential.”

A BIODIESEL firm in Madrid, Spain, is planning to invest $200 million in the Philippines to develop at least 100,000 hectares of land into jatropha plantations, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said.

LOCAL property developers and other stakeholders in the retirement industry should start getting their acts together and sell the Philippines as one and not just their individual projects for the country to get a bigger pie of the global retirement market.

THOUGH the government has yet to finalize its plans on how to divest off its shares at the state-run explorations company, Finance Secretary Margarito B. Teves told reporters that the bidding for the government’s remaining stake in Philippine National Oil Co.-Exploration Corp. (PNOC-EC) will be undertaken next year.

AMID opposition raised by legislators on the privatization of the country’s power lines business, the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) remains confident the bidding for the 25-year concession contract for the National Transmission Corp. (Transco) will push through as scheduled on December 12.

RESTRICTIVE provisions in the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) law should be amended if the farm sector is to become a top contributor to the country’s economy, Manny V. Pangilinan, chairman of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), said.