Henry Sy to buy UEM Development

Manila:  Henry Sy Jr, eldest son of the Philippine tycoon, offered to buy all of UEM Development Philippines Inc and use the company to invest in state infrastructure projects.

Sy agreed to buy 45.5 per cent of UEM and will make a tender offer for the remaining shares in a deal valuing the inactive publicly listed company at 146 million pesos ($3.25 million), according to an e-mailed statement yesterday.

UEM will be used as a platform to take part in as much as 200 billion pesos of infrastructure investments planned by the government.

"Infrastructure is capital intensive and this gives him another venue to bring in investors and raise funds to jump- start projects," said Olan Caperina, who helps manage $9.7 billion at Manila-based BPI Asset Management. Sy could put his infrastructure assets into UEM, Caperina said.

The Philippines plans to invite private investors to help fund as many as 20 projects to build roads, ports and airports.

The projects will be identified in October and as many as three will begin this year, Budget Secretary Butch Abad said yesterday.

"There are several large ticket infrastructure investments in the very near term given the government's initiative to partner with private entities," Sy said.

"We would like to participate in a number of these projects."

Sy is vice chairman at Manila-based SM Investments Corp., owner of the largest Philippine bank by assets, the nation's biggest shopping mall operator and the No 1 department store and grocery chains. His father Henry Sy, who built the family's wealth from a shoe store started in 1948, has an estimated net worth of $5 billion, according to Forbes Asia in July.

Sy is also chief executive at Manila-based SM Development Corp, the third-largest Philippine builder of residential towers by market value.

UEM last traded at 2.50 pesos a share in January 28, 2008. UEM changed its name from Mankayan Minerals Development Co. in 1994 when Malaysia's United Engineers Bhd bought into the company.