Chelsea confident Udenna’s debt issues with banks will be fixed

CHELSEA LOGISTICS and Infrastructure Holdings Corp., a subsidiary of Udenna Corp., said on Sunday that it is confident its parent company will be able to “fix” the debt issues concerning its Clark Global City project.

“We don’t see it as such as per our Udenna management,” Chelsea Logistics President and Chief Executive Officer Chryss Alfonsus V. Damuy said in a phone message to BusinessWorld, when asked how the default notice issued against Clark Global City Corp. (CGCC) is going to affect other Udenna subsidiaries.

“The concerns are being attended [to] and shall be fixed,” he added.

Udenna, the flagship company of Davao-based businessman Dennis A. Uy, confirmed on Saturday that it received on July 22 a notice of declaration of default from a consortium of banks led by BDO Unibank, Inc., as majority lender, against CGCC, an affiliate of Udenna.

The notice was issued on the grounds of “continuing and irremediable events of default” in relation to the master lease agreement between Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) and Global Gateway Development Corp. (GGDC), which was acquired in 2017 by CGCC.

GGDC holds leasehold rights to the 177-hectare land within the Clark Civil Aviation Complex, Clark Freeport Zone, in Pampanga, according to the Philippine Competition Commission.

“In contention, we replied to the consortium banks to dispute their conclusion and clarified that, under the circumstances, there has been, in fact, no event of default or, at the very least, no irremediable event of default, under the master lease agreement on the part of CGCC or GGDC,” Udenna said.

“GGDC and CIAC are working on an amicable resolution that will not result [in] any violation under the master lease agreement,” it added.

GGDC’s parent, Udenna Development Corp., said in 2018 that it would invest $6 billion in the development of the Clark Global City. This includes the construction of more office buildings, residential developments, hotels, hospitals, schools, transport terminal, sports center, and a casino and entertainment complex. — Arjay L. Balinbin