CLARK FIELD, Philippines, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Philippine holding firm Mondragon International Philippines is negotiating
with a California-based trust fund for a $200 million refinancing agreement, its chairman Jose Antonio Gonzalez
said on Saturday.
The company, helped by Resort Suites International, is developing a financial plan to be presented to the global
trust fund, which Gonzalez declined to name, in the next two weeks.
"How much are we asking from them? Two hundred million U.S. dollars which is eight billion pesos,'' Gonzalez
said in an informal briefing with reporters.
"Those figures are staggering but all we have to do is prove that they can get repaid that amount at seven
percent interest over 20 years.''
Mondragon has liabilities of over seven billion pesos ($172.5 million), including a $20 million loan.
The bulk of the loan went to unit Mondragon Leisure and Resorts Corp which manages its Mimosa Leisure Estate in
the former U.S. military base of Clark Field. The estate houses a hotel, golf course, and casino.
The business plan being developed by Mondragon is hinged on a time-sharing scheme on some of its hotel rooms and
100 resort villas in the estate which it plans to launch in January.
"We believe with time share, we can raise a net of at least three billion pesos in the next three years,''
Gonzalez said. ``It would generate $64, $65 million over three years.''
The company is also pushing for the reopening of its casino, closed by the government in a dispute over rent and
other dues.
Gonzalez earlier told Reuters that Mondragon had proposed a four-way split of the casino's revenues with its creditor
banks, the state-run Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp and Clark Development Corp, from which Mondragon leases
the Mimosa estate.
($1 equals 40.57 Philippine Peso)