Monday, March 23, 2009 [ manilatimes.net ]
Belle Corp. said it incurred minimal cancelations amid the global financial turmoil.
Because of the crisis, the developer of high-end Tagaytay Highlands said it is exercising caution with regard to its expansion this year.
On the sidelines of the launch of its Japanese-themed residential community, Willy Ng Ocier, Belle Corp. vice chairman said cancelations by customers reached 2 percent.
Despite this, he said the company is set to introduce two more projects this year.
Ocier said Belle would develop three communities at Tagaytay Highlands, led by the Japanese-themed Katsura.
The three projects, Ocier said, would cost nearly P800 million, with financing sourced internally.
“Property developers should be optimistic, but also cautious at time[s] of crisis,” he told reporters.
Even as the real-estate sector began taking a hit from the financial crunch last year, Belle registered a 20-percent increase in sales to P1 billion from P800 million in 2007, Ocier said.
“We have a very low dependence on overseas Filipinos. Ninety-five percent of our sales came from the local community,” he said.
Katsura is the sixth subdivision at Tagaytay Highlands. Of the 241 units up for sale, half had already been reserved, Ocier said.
“We hope to get [a] license to sell by May this year,” he said.
Belle owns approximately 1,280 hectares of undeveloped land at Tagaytay Highlands.
The company has programmed future projects over at least the next five years “without the need for substantial new land acquisition,” Ocier said.
The high-end residential and leisure properties located in Tagaytay City and Batangas province are operated by Belle and Highlands Prime Inc., the upper-end property arm of the SM group.
At end-September, Belle’s consolidated net income fell 13.5 percent to P121.4 million as foreign currency translation losses reached P125.4 million, a reversal of the previous year’s P86.9 million gains.
Realized income from real estate operations grew 2.4 times to P363.4 million on a 112-percent surge in revenues year on year, while operating expenses rose 19 percent to P114.4 million because of increased project development and marketing activities.
Belle’s assets inched up by 5 percent to P9.996 billion at the end of the third quarter while cash and cash equivalents grew by 118 percent to P138.2 million.
Liabilities also climbed 9 percent to P4.79 million because of the increase in accounts payable and other liabilities.-- Chino S. Leyco
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