Businessman Ramon Ang said Tuesday he plans to join the auction for state-owned International Broadcasting Corp., operator of free-television Channel 13, following his failed bid to invest in GMA Network Inc.
Ang, president of conglomerate San Miguel Corp., said “yes” when asked if he was interested to join the bidding for IBC 13, whose main studio is located at the 4.1-hectare Broadcast City in Old Balara, Capitol Hills, Diliman, Quezon City.
Ang earlier offered to buy a minority stake in GMA Network Inc., but negotiations fell through despite the P1-billion downpayment made by the San Miguel executive.
The Gozon, Jimenez and Duavit families own a combined 79 percent of GMA Network, which airs on Channel 7 on free TV.
Meanwhile, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. chairman Manuel Pangilinan said he was not interested in IBC 13. “We already have TV5,” he said.
The Governance Commission for Government Owned and Controlled Corporations earlier said President Benigno Aquino III approved the privatization of IBC 13, after the broadcast company incurred an average annual financial loss of P45.26 million from 2010 to 2014.
GCG said the privatization would rationalize the state’s portfolio in the communications sector in view of the overlap with PTV-4, which was already sufficient to address market failures in the private broadcast industry such as providing programs with social value.
IBC-13 was in financial distress, as it operated at a net loss over a four-year period and received operational subsidies amounting to P23.56 million in 2015, according to GCG.
The privatization of IBC-13 will be done through public bidding with an estimated floor price of P1.977 billion. A committee composed of representatives from GCG, the Presidential Communications Operations Office and IBC-13 will implement and conduct the process.
IBC-13 started in 1960 as a private company known as Inter-Island Broadcasting Corp. and was sequestered by the Presidential Commission on Good Government in 1986 as a part of the recovery of ill-gotten wealth. It is one of two networks considered as GOCCs aside from Philippine Television Network Inc.
GCG, which was established in 2011 as the central advisory and oversight body for ensuring the active exercise of the state’s ownership rights in GOCCs, has abolished 22 non-performing GOCCs and classified 25 more as inactive or non-operational.
IBC in 2012 signed a deal with property developer Primestate Ventures Inc. to develop Broadcast City over the next six years, but the deal was questioned in Congress.