[ manilatimes.net] July 14, 2011
AYALA Land Inc. is beefing up its office space portfolio in major cities across the country amid the continued expansion of its residential and hotel units.
Antonino Aquino, ALI president, told reporters that the company would add an office building in UP-Ayala Technohub in Quezon City as well as two business process outsourcing towers in Makati.
ALI also would launch an office tower in Bonifacio Global City and its second building in Cebu.
“The target that we have said was to double our office space over a five-year period and we are very on track as far as that is concerned,” Aquino said
Earlier, ALI said it would roll out 13 projects across the country with a total gross leasable area of 200,000 square meters.
At end-March, the company’s occupied BPO space reached 215,000 square meters, up 27 percent year-on-year. Occupancy rate is at 80 percent, also higher than 66 percent last year.
For its residential business, ALI continues to enjoy robust sales across all market segments, well on target to launch 20,000 units by yearend, company officials said.
“We do expect that things will continue to be sustained. The market continues to be good relative to sales take-up. I think that is still very positive at this point,” Aquino said.
Sales have been brisk for its product launches in Mandaluyong, Bonifacio Global City, Alabang, Quezon City, Makati and Cebu, he added.
For its hotel business, ALI is also building up its boutique portfolio under its own Kukun brand as it intends to launch its businessman’s hotel in Alabang and Quezon City. This is on top of the boutique hotels that ALI had launched in Bonfiacio Global City, Davao and Cagayan de Oro in the past 14 months.
Aquino said accelerating the expansion of the company’s boutique hotels will depend on the market.
“We will evaluate on a year-to-year basis. But we’ve decided we’ll have the five hotels in addition to what we’re doing in Ayala Center,” he said.
ALI is set to complete the development of its Pangalusian Island Resort consisting of 42 villas in the fourth quarter. This is on top of the ongoing renovation of Club Noah that will add 250 rooms to the 100 already offered by the resorts in the islands of Lagen and Miniloc in Palawan.
ALI shares rose to P15.90 on Wednesday from P15.60 each on Thursday.
KRISTA ANGELA M. MONTEALEGRE
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