Fil-Estate gets 30% stake in John Hay consortium

MANILA, Philippines - The board of holding firm Fil-Estate Corp. has approved its acquisition of Fil-Estate Management Inc.’s 30% stake in Camp John Hay Development Corp. (CJHDevCo). In an interview, Fil-Estate Corp. Corporate Secretary Gilbert Raymund T. Reyes said its parent Fil-Estate Management had transferred its interest in CJHDevCo to its unit to improve the latter’s negative equity position. CJHDevCo is a consortium formed by Fil-Estate Management, College Assurance Plan Philippines, Inc. and Penta Capital Holdings. "Fil-Estate Management did this so that Fil-Estate Corp. would have active investments to pay the shareholders who made substantial advances to the company’s previous Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT-3) project," Mr. Reyes said. He said the Philippine Stock Exchange has given it until this year to solve the problem, otherwise it would get delisted. Fil-Estate Corp. is the holding firm that built MRT-3, but Mr. Reyes noted that since the project ended 10 years ago, the company has not had a consistent source of revenue. "Acquiring interest in CJHDevCo would put the company back into a good position," Mr. Reyes said. — K. Liu, BusinessWorld