The Podium complex is being bought out by the financial group controlled by the Philippines’ billionaire Sy family
Singapore’s Keppel Corporation announced Monday that its Philippine subsidiary and a joint venture partner had agreed to sell their half-stake in a metro Manila mixed-use complex for PHP 8 billion ($150 million).
Keppel Philippines Properties and its majority-owned Opon-KE Properties together hold a 50 percent interest in The Podium West Tower and The Podium Mall in Mandaluyong. The buyer of the stake, BDO Unibank, holds the remaining 50 percent and will take full ownership of the asset upon the JV’s exit.
The agreed consideration is more than the net asset value of PHP 3.4 billion as of 31 December 2022, Keppel Corp said in a release. The disposal is expected to take place in the first half of 2023.
“The divestment is in line with Keppel’s Vision 2030 asset monetisation plans to unlock capital which can be channelled towards new growth opportunities,” the company said.
Retail and Commercial Hub
Keppel and BDO, a financial group controlled by the billionaire Sy family behind mall developer SM Investments, opened The Podium Mall in 2002 and later redeveloped the project into a retail and commercial hub featuring the 40-storey Podium West Tower office building, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Keppel Corporation chairman Danny Teoh
The Podium’s mall has a total leasable area of 50,000 square metres and The Podium West Tower has a net leasable area of 90,000 square metres, the Inquirer said — pencilling out to a price per square metre of PHP 114,286 ($2,109) for BDO, which occupies roughly 63 percent of the office space in the complex.
BDO said in a Monday stock filing that it would pay cash to complete the buyout, which remains subject to approval by the Philippine central bank and Philippine Competition Commission and customary closing conditions.
Keppel Philippines Properties was listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange in 1989 and continues to hold an interest in Palmdale Heights, a residential development in eastern Manila’s Pasig City.
Non-Core Asset Disposals
The latest disposal of a non-core Keppel asset comes three weeks after Keppel Land revealed that it was selling its 100 percent stake in a Myanmar hotel project for $57.4 million.
According to Keppel Corp, the consideration exceeded the net asset value of $43.9 million for the development as of February.
Keppel Land continues to own the Sedona Hotel and the Junction City mixed-use development, both in Yangon.
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