by Jenniffer B. Austria
[ manilastandardtoday.com ] September 30, 2010
Ayala Land Inc., the country’s largest property developer, has formed its real estate investment trust unit, a stock exchange filing showed Wednesday.
AyalaLand Commercial Reit Inc.’s investments will include shopping centers and offices owned by the developer and the company will eventually hold an initial public offering, the statement said.
AyalaLand Commercial will also seek acquisitions to grow its portfolio, it said.
“ALCRI intends to hold these investment properties for long-term investment and shall carefully maintain their attractiveness and marketability with the objective of providing shareholders with a competitive rate of return through regular and stable cash distributions,” said Ayala Land senior vice president and chief finance officer Jaime Ysmael Ysmael.
Ayala Land owns several shoppings centers and office buildings in various parts of the country. It has several prime properties in Makati, Fort Bonifacio, Alabang and Cebu.
Ayala Land as of end 2009 has one million square meters of gross leasable area for shopping centers and 347,000 square meters for office development.
AyalaLand Commercial will have an initial authorized capitalization of P1.2 billion, with P300 million subscribed and paid up.
Ayala Land earlier said that it planned to raise $300 million from Reit listing.
It has tapped UBS and JP Morgan as joint underwriters for offering.
Share price of Ayala Land gained P0.12 Wednesday to close at P17.70 per share.
The Reit Law provides tax and other incentives to property companies that will list their revenue-generating assets, like shopping malls, hotels, office buildings, tollways and hospitals in the Philippine Stock Exchange.
Big developers like SM Development Corp., Rbinsons Land Corp. and Filinvest Land Inc. earlier expressed interest to list their holdings through Reit.
Ortigas & Co. Limited Partnership, one of the oldest property developers in the Philippines, is also interested in converting its revenue-generating assets into a real estate investment trust company.
_______________________________________________________________
