Ayala Land Inc. and SM Prime Holdings Inc. agreed to ally with members of the Ortigas family to develop a portion of a business district in the Philippine capital.
Groups controlled by Francisco Ortigas and Rafael Ortigas signed an agreement to drop all lawsuits
relating to the ownership and management of the family’s OCLP Holdings Inc., the two builders said in separate disclosures to the stock exchange on Friday. Francisco is backed by SM and Rafael by Ayala.
The alliance ends Ayala and SM’s two-year rivalry for a stake in OCLP and its landholdings. Ayala and SM have also fought over a 300-hectare (741-acre) reclamation project in Manila Bay, a 7.7-hectare property in Negros Occidental and over which company’s Manila mall would be picked for a new train hub.
“A cooperation avoids a costly battle for control and this will help boost the value of property,” Allan Yu, who helps manage about P330 billion at Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co., said. “Both groups are professionals so they will see to it that this cooperation would work.”
Ayala Land, which developed the Makati district known as the Philippines’s Wall Street, and SM had been expected to make competing bids for a stake in closely held OCLP.
SM Prime is the nation’s largest mall operator, with 49 shopping hubs in the Philippines and five in China.
Ayala Land rose 1.2 percent at the noon break in Manila, poised for its highest close since September 30. SM Prime was unchanged at P17.70.