There's a brand new version of the controversial Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF), one that apparently has President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s nod.
Economist-solon Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda, one of the people who crafted this new MIF, discussed in an ANC Headstart interview on Friday, Jan. 20 some of the new features of the measure.
He also bandied about figures that were relevant to the tweaked MIF, or the proposed Philippine sovereign wealth fund.
The Bicolano said in the interview that under the new version, the government would guarantee securitization of about P44.3 billion in annual dividends from government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs).
"So yung (the) P44.3 billion will be securitized for 20 years...If you securitize 20 years of that using a certain discount rate, it will amount to P765.96 billion," Salceda, chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, said.
He said that since the measure's capitalization would now come from GOCCs, the MIF would be about the use of real surpluses.
"Now I think this is well thought-out...We submitted it and apparently the President has a go on it. So basically its just a matter of details," Salceda said.
He noted that the new MIF would accept foreign investors like the Indonesian model of a sovereign wealth fund.
Salceda also bared designs of the MIF, which would be run by the Maharlika Investment Corporation (MIC) to have an initial public offering or IPO.
"So after that there will be an IPO. There's very strong demand actually and Morgan Stanley is interested. So there's so many other big investment banks who are interested in the sovereign development fund," he said, alluding to investors' reaction to Marcos's MIF pitch at the just-concluded World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.
"Ang IPO kasi easily (With an IPO, you can easily), you can...you can easily raise P1.2 trillion, if you ask me. So you will have a fund that has P1.2 trillion with a commitment from the government that 20 years of dividends are securitized inside as part of initial capitalization of this MIF," the House leader said.
"So, upon IPO, it's no longer a GOCC. It will be essentially another listed company in the Philippine stock market," he further explained.
"It's up to the President, but the recommendation is that the government will own less than 50 percent," Salceda added.
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The previous version of the MIF--the one contained in House Bill (HB) No.6608, which the House passed last month--tapped dividends from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) for its capitalization.
In the very first version of the proposal, investible funds from pension agencies such as the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and Social Security System (SSS) would be used as seed money-something that didn't go well with the public.