Philippine conglomerate Aboitiz Equity Ventures said on Monday the global credit crisis has set back the sale of its ferry venture, with a Kuwait-linked firm now buying just under half of the business at a lower price.

Aboitiz Equity and its sister firm Aboitiz & Company have agreed to renegotiate an earlier deal in which the firms would sell their combined 93 percent stake in Aboitiz Transport Systems Corp. (ATS) to KGLI-NM Holdings Inc. for P2.044 per share or about $100 million.

KGLI-NM Holdings, a joint venture between local firm Negros Holdings and Management Corp. and KGL Investment of logistics group Kuwait and Gulf Link, will now buy 42 percent from the Aboitiz group and the public's 7 percent via a tender offer later.

Both purchases will be done at P1.84 per share, 10 percent lower than the original offer, giving the Aboitiz group about P1.9 billion ($40.5 million).

KGLI-NM Holdings Inc. has an option to buy the remaining 51 percent of the ferry firm from the Aboitiz group from May to September of 2009 at P1.84 per share plus a premium to be based on the share price of ATS from April 30 to September 30, ATS told the Philippine Stock Exchange.

"The financial markets have changed since they (KGLI-NM) made the offer," Erramon Aboitiz, Aboitiz chief operating officer told Reuters by phone. "They asked for more time to fix their finances."

"We gave them the option to buy the 51 percent stake at a later time. If they don't (exercise that option) that is fine," he said, adding the group would retain the stake.

Aboitiz & Company is the private holding firm of the Aboitiz business clan based in the central Philippine province of Cebu, in which Aboitiz Equity is the largest shareholder.

Ferries are a popular mode of transport in the Philippines, an archipelago of 7,100 islands, but accidents are common due to overloaded and ageing ferries and frequent typhoons.