Amidst the humps thrown by Omicron at the onset of this year, economists are taking a "guarded optimism" that the country can and will surmount this roadblock to bring the economy back on track to recovery.

While we were all busy warding off this treacherous variant, surprising news emerged in the business scene: Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy is reportedly disposing his assets, particularly those that he had painstakingly accumulated in the last six years.

Even prior to the emergence of this development, the business community was agog with tattle-rattle that negotiations for a top educational institution to acquire Enderun Colleges Incorporated failed.

The price was too stiff for the prospective investor to purchase Enderun. Heard from a muted source privy to the purchase discussion was that Mr. Dennis was unbending. He wants a premium.

It’s no fire sale but the Davao-businessman is asking premium over the price of the Enderun, tagged to be the best culinary, art, hotel and restaurant management school in the country.

Five years ago, in July 2017, Udenna Corporation, the holding firm of  Mr. Uy’s business interests, purchased Enderun, a move then said to be “at an opportune time” because “it supports our aggressive expansion in industries vital to the Philippine economy’s further growth.”

Though Udenna kept mum on the purchase price at the time of the announcement, the owners were all smiles with a fatten pocket. They sold Enderun for a premium. Udenna paid a hefty P1.3 billion. Now, Mr. Uy is selling Enderun at “premium over the premium.” The asking price is P1.5 billion.

Based on the due diligence conducted by the account officers of the ranking university that was interested to acquire Enderun, all things considered, pegged the price some 250 percent lower from the asking price, or P500 million only. This is the reason why the intent to buy did not pull through.

Another issue that comes to fore with the reported asset sale of Mr. Uy is the consummation in the acquisition of Udenna’s subsidiary UC Malampaya of the majority shares in the Malampaya gas field.

Just to backtrack a bit, Udenna first bought Chevron’s 45 percent stake and later on another 45 percent of SPEX, taking effective control of Malampaya with the remaining 10 percent owned by Philippine National Oil Co, (PNOC). In both transactions PNOC has not exercised its right of first refusal.

It’s already 2022 and the transaction is pending approval from the regulators. The deadline for Udenna to satisfy certain requirements under the purchase agreement has already lapsed and so far there’s nothing said about compliance.

The latest is that there are no takers. Even as he decides to sell there’s no incentive for the prospective investor to shell out a big chunk of money for a project that faces uncertainty in the extension of the service contract license. The reserve in the current service contract is depleting. The corporate life of the existing contract, if I’m not mistaken, still has three years to go.

However, an assurance is needed for the contract to be extended because the operators/owners will have to dip into their deep pockets to put up new offshore wells. Though, based on initial exploration there’s still a huge reserve within the perimeter of the service contract. But extraction and commercialization takes a minimum five years.

It’s interesting to watch how the wheels of Mr. Uy’s business will churn moving forward.

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