Posted on 09:14 PM, October 26, 2010 [ BusinessWorld Online ]
ORTIGAS & CO. Limited Partnership, one of the oldest property developers in the country, wants to list on the local bourse early next year, executives said yesterday.
Going public will allow the company to expand its shopping and property businesses.
“We hope to join the big league soon,” Rex C. Drilon II, outgoing chief operating officer of Ortigas & Co., said in a briefing.
“[Listing] will most probably be a combination of both an initial public offering [and a] real estate investment trust (REIT) ... we are looking towards the end of the first semester next year,” Emmanuel A. Rapadas, Ortigas & Co. chief finance officer, said.
The Greenhills shopping complex in San Juan alone can generate more than $300 million in fresh funds, the firm’s executives said.
However, the property developer has yet to finalize the number of shares and amount to be generated from the sale of stocks.
Mr. Drilon said the firm would pursue the Greenhills redevelopment to triple the shopping area to 300,000 square meters and allow the construction of three residential condominium units and a hotel.
Meanwhile, Ortigas & Co. will launch the fourth tower of its P15-billion condominium project in Quezon City early next year. The 21-storey Lleida will have 163 units worth P1.9 million to P7.9 million each.
The Circulo Verde project, which will have 15 towers, sits on a 12-hectare property at Calle Industria in Bagumbayan, Quezon City.
“We will also start selling the fifth building before the end of next year,” Mr. Drilon said.
“The driver of the company’s growth in the next five years is really real estate,” he added.
The 79-year-old property developer recorded P2 billion in revenue last year and P600 million in net income. The unlisted firm wants to expand this by 25% this year.
The Ortigas real estate business traces its roots to the 1920s when the Augustinian friars sold 4,033 hectares of land to Frank W. Dudley and Francisco Ortigas.
In 1931, Ortigas, Madrigal y cia., S. en C. was incorporated as a limited partnership with the sole purpose of acquiring the Hacienda de Mandaloyon, which spanned the municipalities now known as Mandaluyong, San Juan, Pasig, and Quezon City.
The Madrigals withdrew in 1956 and the partnership’s name was correspondingly amended to Ortigas & Company Limited Partnership.
Among its finished projects is the high-end Wack-Wack subdivision in Ortigas. -- Neil Jerome C. Morales
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