Photo: Broad Arrow Auctions
The Philippine Bureau of Customs will open sealed bids at 10 a.m. Friday, Oct. 30, in a second-floor conference room of the Prefab Building at the Port of Manila, and the 11 seized vehicles on the block include a 2021 McLaren Senna. A 2021 Senna was also in the bureau’s April 28 auction, where the notice put its floor price at P102,042,250.95, and it went unsold.
On Oct. 27, The Chronicle reported that BOC Deputy Chief of Staff Chris Noel Bendijo said no bidders had registered yet. The bureau’s notice of public auction, printed Oct. 20, set that same day, Oct. 27, as the deadline for bidders to submit their requirements.
What the notice sets for Friday
The sale is a sealed-bid auction run by the Auction and Cargo Disposal Division of the Port of Manila. The notice cites Sections 1118 and 1139 to 1151 of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act and Customs Administrative Order No. 03-2020. Qualified bidders could inspect the vehicles on the BOC-POM grounds from Oct. 27 to 29.
The Chronicle lists the lots as a 2022 Ferrari SF90 Stradale, the 2021 McLaren Senna, a 2019 Lexus ES, a 2019 Toyota Alphard, 2021 and 2023 Land Rover Range Rovers, a 2023 BMW X6, a 2021 Mercedes-Benz AMG GT, a 2022 Bentley Continental, a 2021 Rolls-Royce Cullinan and a Rolls-Royce Phantom. The Philippine Star reported combined floor prices of P226.86 million. I could not retrieve the October lot sheet, which returned an access error from the bureau’s site, so the per-vehicle October floors are unconfirmed here. The reports I read do not say why each vehicle was seized.
April’s sale found one buyer for 12 lots
At the April 28 sale, the bureau auctioned 12 vehicles that the Tribune described as linked to offshore gaming operators (POGO). The BOC told the paper all of them were seized for non-payment or underpayment of taxes by the consignee. One bidder took part, and Pureblends Corporation bought a 2023 Rolls-Royce Phantom for P25 million. Jann Obillos, acting chief of the Auction and Cargo Disposal Division, cited high prices and said rising oil prices affect how many bidders turn up, according to the Tribune. The other 11 vehicles stayed unsold, and the bureau had not decided between another auction and a negotiated sale.
Matching the April notice against The Chronicle’s list by year and model, six of October’s lots appear in both: the 2022 SF90 Stradale, the Senna, the 2019 Alphard, the 2021 AMG GT, and the 2021 and 2023 Range Rovers. Year and model do not prove it is the same vehicle, and the bureau has not said so. The April floors on those six were P39.13 million for the SF90, P102.04 million for the Senna, P9.65 million for the AMG GT, P2.67 million for the Alphard, P6.10 million and P11.07 million for the Range Rovers. They add up to P170.67 million, by my arithmetic.
What the P226.86 million total implies
If those six cars carried unchanged floors, the other five lots (Lexus ES, BMW X6, Bentley Continental, Cullinan and Phantom) would share P56.19 million. A Phantom alone was listed in April at P25.54 million or P38.32 million, depending on model year. That points to price cuts on at least some of the repeat lots, assuming they are the same cars, though only the bureau’s October lot sheet can settle it. A floor price in this kind of sale is the government’s asking price. April showed what happens when the ask sits above what buyers will pay: one sale in 12 lots.
The April notice also shows what a bidder has to put down alongside a sealed bid. Most lots required a bid bond of 5% of the floor price and the two cheapest, the Alphard and a Lexus LX570, required 10%. On a floor of P102.04 million, 5% is about P5.1 million that a bidder must post with the bid. That is a hurdle for a market with few buyers, and Obillos named the price level as one reason turnout was thin.
Seized supercars sit until someone buys
Governments that seize exotic cars have to store them until someone buys. Backfire News reported that London’s Met Police pound is charging £20 a day on a seized Ferrari, and it explained how a banned Porsche 959 created the U.S. “Show or Display” loophole for imported hypercars.
What happens after the bids open
The bureau opens bids at 10 a.m. Manila time Friday, which is 10 p.m. Thursday on the U.S. East Coast. In April, lots without a buyer stayed with the bureau, which had not settled between another auction and a negotiated sale. The Senna’s October floor, and whether it sells, will show whether the bureau cut its price or waited for buyers to come to it.
Should a customs bureau keep relisting seized supercars at lower floors until someone bids, or hold its prices and wait for a buyer?
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