THE pace of disposal by sale of banks’ nonperforming assets is expected to quicken this year with the banks’ agreement to lower prices of foreclosed assets offered for sale.            

This was the view that CB Richard Ellis executives—the company is a global player in real estate services—expressed on Wednesday. They added the banks would trim their selling price 30 to 50 US cents per dollar worth of assets for disposition.      

The reduction should help boost the sale of the banks’ real and other property acquired, or ROPAs, by another P100 billion and help relieve the lack of supply of prime office and commercial space in the country, the firm’s associate director Mike R. Mabutol, said in a briefing.

Two years after the Special Purpose Vehicle Act passed in 2002 only P97 billion worth of nonperforming assets were sold. 

Mabuto said this time, those expected to be sold that will enlarge the total of disposed-of assets would be led by the asset sale programs of the Land Bank of the Philippines and the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., whose ROPAs have been set for auction in March and April this year, respectively.       

Government-owned Land Bank has set aside P4 billion worth of acquired property located mostly in Metro Manila and southern Luzon while RCBC is selling P1 billion.    

Mabuto said it makes sense for the banks to sell at discounts as deep as 70 percent because the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is forcing them to set aside capital provisions equal to 150 percent of the value of the ROPAs. Moreover, accounting rules allow them to book the losses over 10 years apart from taking advantage of capital gains and documentary stamp tax waivers.     

He added that 10 acquired property auctions by 7 banks including Land Bank and RCBC, with aggregate value of some P10 billion, will be auctioned this year. He did not name the other banks.        

CBRE has participated in 34 such auctions in the Philippines and sold over 1,000 different properties worth more than P1.2 billion.

CONGRESS inched closer to ratifying the final version of the 2007 budget bill after the bicameral conference committee on Wednesday rendered a report endorsing that the money measure be submitted to Malacañang for signing into law by President Arroyo.

Philippine imports probably grew at a slower pace in November as global crude prices eased and purchases of electronic items weakened, economists said.

PRESIDENT Arroyo will apprise world leaders and top business executives of developments in the evolution of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) into a “formidable bloc” when she attends the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week.

THE pace of disposal by sale of banks’ nonperforming assets is expected to quicken this year with the banks’ agreement to lower prices of foreclosed assets offered for sale.

THE Filipino consumers’ confidence level is at an all-time high with their worries over the economy, job prospects, and political stability continually easing, according to findings of global consumer research outfit ACNielsen on Wednesday.

IT is possible the Arroyo government might miss last year’s economic target, as initial figures indicate a gross domestic product (GDP) growth of as low as 5.3 percent and up to 5.6 percent, a senior planning official on Wednesday said.

WHOEVER comes out the beneficial owner or owners of 33,133,064 shares in San Miguel Corp. will no longer get a seat on the board of San Miguel.