The state-run Government Services Insurance System booked a net income of P48.85 billion in 2015, down 65 percent from P140.2 billion in 2014, on lower returns on stock market and bond investments, and the absence of property sales.
GSIS president and general mnager Robert Vergara said the income in 2014 was “a tough act to follow,” adding the bond and stock markets were doing well in that year.
“Last year [2015], was a complete reverse, equity markets were bad, bond markets were bad. We did not have any property sales,” Vergara said.
Unaudited figures showed the agency’s expenses in 2015 rose 3 percent to P93.374 billion while liabilities jumped 12.7 percent to P24.657 billion.
GSIS assets, meanwhile, grew 5.8 percent to P960.148 billion at the end of 2015.
Vergara said the pension plan aimed to hit the P1-trillion mark in terms of assets by the middle of the year.
“This year, despite the dreadful start of the year and with the stock market bouncing back, I think we are on track for that milestone of joining some of the financial institutions with over trillion of assets hopefully by the middle of this year,” Vergara said.
“Again, the markets will have a lot to do but it seems to be something that is certainly within range,” he added.
Verrgara said the agency had expected to dispose of real properties in the first six months of the year to gain additional funds.
“We’re going through our properties and we’re conducting appraisals, we need to do that to set a minimum price, to the extent that we have time to do something, then the ideas is to try to get one auction going this year in the first half” Vergara said.
GSIS failed to dispose of three of its properties amounting to about P32 billion, or about 6 percent of the pension fund’s real estate portfolio.
The properties include the 18,500 square-meter Metro Manila Development Authority lot in Barangay Ugong, Pasig City.
The other property was the 2,429 square-meter old GSIS building in Legaspi Village in Makati City.
Another failed property disposal last year was the 18.4-hectare Payanig sa Pasig lot by the Presidential Commission on Good Government just across the MMDA property.
“Valuation via an independent third party surveyor. I was hoping we would get some clue because of the Payanig sale, but that sale sadly was not able to push through,” Vergara said earlier.
Other real estate assets of the pension fund manager include the 6,470-square meter Jai Alai property along Taft Ave. in Ermita, Manila; the two-hectare Water Fun amusement park in Sucat, Parañaque City; and the 1.6-hectare Philippine National Railways property along Dagupan St., Tutuban area in Tondo, Manila.