By MAX ESTAYO

Finance secretary Margarito Teves yesterday said that the government wants to keep its options open on the government’s remaining stake in Petron but when it decides to sell, it will be in open and competitive bidding.

The Gokongwei group has made a P24.56 billion offer for the government’s 40 percent stake in the oil refiner.

A foreign fund manager, meanwhile according to Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes is eager to buy Saudi Aramco’s stake in Petron for which Ashmore Group has offered $550 million.

Reyes said that even if the government cannot exercise the right of first refusal, lacking the money to finance the buyback, it can appoint a group that can handle the sale.

A Gokongwei company, JG Summit Petrochemical Corp. offered to buy the government’s 3.75 billion shares at P6.55 per share.

Ashmore’s offer valued Petron at P6.22 per share. Gokongwei’s bid in effect puts over a billion peso premium for the remaining and equal 40 percent government holding in Petron.

Sources said Gokongwei is willing to partner with the yet unnamed principal Ashmore is representing.

The government has until Monday, May 12, to decide if it wants to exercise that right.

The Department of Finance earlier said the government is not keen on buying back the shares for lack of money.

Instead, finance officials said the government might sell its shares in the oil refiner to beef up revenue collections and help it balance the budget this year.

The government is aiming to raise P29.6 billion from the sale of state assets this year, part of the P127.3 billion non-tax revenues programmed this year.

The government has a full-year revenue target of P1.2 trillion, the same amount it wants to spend this year.

However, spending pressures, from the need to pump-prime the economy to shield it from the US recession and increase subsidy on rice purchases, are derailing the balanced-budget plan.

The government incurred a P51.6-billion deficit in the first quarter. It intends to post surpluses in the next three quarters en route to a balanced budget.

So far this year, the government had risen about P9 billion from the sale of its shares in Meralco and Eastern Telecommunications Phils. Inc.

For the rest of the year, it plans to sale other assets such as the Food Terminal Inc. in Taguig, remaining shares in Meralco and shares in PNOC-EC.

The government generated P90.6 billion last year from privatization, helping it narrow the budget gap to its smallest level of P12.4 billion.

Should the government decide to sell its stake in Petron, a lot of its funding problems will be solved.