A debt-saddled company, which was once a flagship company during the era of Ferdinand Marcos, could be headed for a reawakening under the Bongbong administration.
Abogado Florentino M. Herrera III, a founding partner of Herrera Teehankee & Cabrera (HT) Law Offices, is one of four new faces in shell firm Filsyn Corp.
During Filsyn’s annual stockholders’ meeting on September 15, Herrera was appointed as chairman and president replacing Consolacion A. Sanchez and Jaime M. Sto. Domingo, respectively.
Other new faces in the company are Bing Chang (director), Melyjane G. Bertillo-Ancheta (corporate secretary), and Giovanni C. Laya (auditor and compliance officer).
Herrera represents Filsyn’s single biggest stockholder, Trans-Pacific Oriental Holding, which owns 31 percent of the company.
The other major investors of Filsyn are Taipei-based Far Eastern Investment Holding (22 percent), Singapore-based Malaysia Garment Manufacturers (which increased its stake from 10 percent to 16 percent over the last three months), Development Bank of the Philippines (five percent), and National Development Co. (three percent).
Malaysia Garments is owned by Chuan Yuan Limited which took over the P1.2 billion loan owed by Filsyn to Chinatrust.
Chuan Yuan sold the loan to Malaysian Garments which later bought the 10 percent stake previously owned by Waldorf Services B.V. in Filsyn).
Filsyn was formed in 1968 as Filipinas Synthetic Fiber Corp. to promote and support the polyester fiber and yarn requirements of the local textile industry. It was granted generous perks under the Marcos administration thrust to strengthen basic manufacturing industries.
It adopted its current name in 1987 when it expanded into aquaculture and real estate. It struck an equity and technical deal with Taiwanese textile giant Far East in 1989 for its modernization program.
Filsyn incurred heavy losses and debt in the mid-1990s as it was unable to compete with the flood of cheap imports under the trade liberalization program. Filsyn has yet to resume operations since it was forced to close down in 1996 due to a crippling labor strike.
Over the last few years. Filsyn management has been working to settle its P1.2 billion unpaid loans and restructure its capital.
Filsyn’s properties include the 30-hectare land of its former factory in Sta. Rosa, Laguna near the Ayala-owned Laguna Technopark and
subdivisions; a 16.3-hectare property in Gen. Mariano Alvarez in Carmona, Cavite near Manila Southwoods Golf and Country Club; and a 150-hectare real estate in Pontevedra, Capiz owned by its acquaventure firm, Island King.
It formed FYN Green Pet Corp. in 2019 as part of its plan to go into the recycling of waste polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles into resin to be used as feedstock for the manufacture of filament and food grade chip.
The new board approved to guarantee and increase the bank loan of FYN Green from CTBC Bank to $15 million from $12 million.
