MANILA - Real estate giant Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) is planning to buy state-run Food Terminal Inc. (FTI), one of the largest industrial complexes in Metro Manila, an official said Thursday.

"We are looking at it (FTI). We are interested in anything of significant size in Metro Manila," ALI Senior Vice President and Residential Business Group Head Bernard Vincent Dy told reporters.

The government is set to bid out the 120-hectare property in Taguig City next week at a minimum floor price of P13 billion.

Other firms who have earlier expressed interest in FTI include Henry Sy's SM group and state-run pension fund Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).

The national government is planning to use the sale proceeds from FTI to help plug a widening budget deficit.

As of August, the budget deficit has already reached P210 billion, or P40 billion shy of its full-year fiscal gap target of P250 billion.

Finance officials had said they will proceed with the privatization of FTI within the year. The sale of the state-run complex has been perennially postponed as other government assets were sold off first.

At present, more than 300 firms from light to medium-scale industries have put up their plants and facilities in the state-run complex.

These firms, according to FTI's website, are engaged in various lines of production and services such as electronics, food, transport, garments, and general warehousing.