SY-led China Banking Corp. (Chinabank) is planning to sell the Mactan, Cebu property it acquired from Dennis A. Uy’s PH Resort Group Holdings Inc., following interest from potential buyers.
“We have it already. We will start opening it up to people to show interest. There are a couple of interested parties,” Chinabank Chairman Hans T. Sy told reporters last week.
“It’s about 14 hectares. It is a very valuable property. We will open it up for sale,” he added.
In October 2023, Chinabank signed a sale and leaseback agreement with PH Resorts for the land for the latter’s planned Emerald Bay casino project. However, Mr. Sy said Chinabank has no plans to renew the leaseback agreement, which expired in March.
“It’s expired now. We’re not renewing anymore. We always do things with a heart. We gave them a chance,” Mr. Sy said.
Mr. Sy said this as Chelsea Logistics and Infrastructure Holdings Corp., also an Uy-led company, executed a Dacion-En-Pago transaction with Chinabank involving part of its real estate property in Brgy. Ligid-Tipas, Taguig City to divest non-productive assets and reduce debt.
Dacion-En-Pago refers to the transfer of asset ownership to settle a debt.
Chelsea Logistics said in its annual report that it signed a deed of assignment with Chinabank last year that assigned rights and ownership to a certain portion of the property to the Sy-led bank for P1.63 billion.
“The consideration was applied as full payment to the outstanding loan and unpaid interest of the group amounting to P1.013 billion and partial payments to unpaid interest on loans of Chelsea Shipping Corp. and Trans-Asia Shipping Lines Inc. with Chinabank amounting to P620 million,” Chelsea Logistics said.
In a separate regulatory filing, Chelsea Logistics said it acquired the property in 2019 for the warehousing operations of its subsidiary Worklink Services, Inc. (WSI).
Chelsea Logistics and WSI entered into a loan agreement with Chinabank to buy the property for P800 million, and to build a warehouse facility on the property for P450 million. However, Chelsea Logistics decided to stop the construction of the warehouse in 2022.
“Pursuant to the plan of the group to venture into the e-commerce business, the management has deemed that the use of the properties is currently undetermined,” Chelsea Logistics said.
Chinabank shares were last traded on May 2, when the company’s stock dropped by 1.21%, or P1.10, to P89.90 per share. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave
