SEC okays P15-B ALI bonds

By Zinnia B. Dela Peña (The Philippine Star) Updated March 31, 2012 12:00 AM

MANILA, Philippines - Property giant Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) has obtained the Securities and Exchange Commission’s nod to raise as much as P15 billion from the sale of seven and 10-year bonds.

Based on its registration statement filed with the SEC, ALI will issue fixed rate callable bonds at 100 percent face value though joint issue managers BPI Capital Corp. and The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp.

Net proceeds from the issue will be used to partly support capital spending this year.

The offer will run from April 16 to 20. The company intends to list the bonds at the Philippine Dealing Exchange.

The aggregate amount of the issue was set at around P10 billion, with an oversubscription option of up to P5 billion.

ALI has set a record P37 billion capital spending program this year, 23.3 percent more than what it spent in 2011. Bulk of spending, or 56 percent, will go to residential projects, 13 percent (shopping centers), four percent (office buildings), 12 percent (hotels) and the balance of 15 percent (acquisition of new properties).

For this year, ALI intends to launch 24,800 units across all its major residential brands (Ayala Premier, Avida, Aveo and Amaia), significantly higher than the 20,613 units rolled out in 2011.

ALI also plans to aggressively expand its leasing portfolio as it continues to work on its programmed two million square meters and 750,000 sqm expansion of its shopping centers and business process outsourcing office (BPO) leasable area, respectively, over the next five years.

The group is currently building its first four businessman’s hotels under Kukun brand in Bonifacio Global City, Cagayan de Oro, Davao and Nuvali in Laguna. The first two hotels are slated to be operational this year.

ALI grew its net income 31 percent last year to P7.14 billion on strong growth across its major business lines. Revenues rose 17 percent to P44.21 billion, of which P41.23 billion came from real estate and hotels.

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NSO: Building permits increased 7.6% in fourth quarter

Friday, 30 March, 2012 Written by Maria Bernadette Lunas

[ manilastandardtoday.com ]

Building permits issued by the government rose 7.6 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2011, as more households and companies asked for consent to construct houses and commercial projects during the period.

The National Statistics Office said the government approved 24,610 building permits in the fourth quarter, up from 22,879 permits issued during the same period in 2010.

Permits for residential construction increased by 4.5 percent to 17,451 projects from 16,697 while the number of industrial and commercial construction projects grew 9.7 percent to 3,407 from 3,106.

The government also issued 3,752 permits for expansion or repair in the quarter, higher by 22 percent than 3,076 applications received a year ago.

The NSO said the Calabarzon region received the highest number of applications at 5,489, followed by Central Visayas with 3,015; Metro Manila with 2,718; and Central Luzon with 2,241.

It said that while the number of permits approved in the fourth quarter was higher than a year ago, the total cost of private sector building construction was lower by 8.5 percent during the period.

The NSO said the value of private building construction fell to P43.8 billion in the quarter from P47.8 billion a year earlier.

Residential construction declined 7.1 percent by value to P24.3 billion from P26.2 billion while non-residential construction dropped 14.1 percent to P15.7 billion from P18.2 billion.

(Published in the Manila Standard Today newspaper on /2012/March/31)

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BIR steps up campaign against tax evaders

03/30/2012 [ tribune.net.ph ]

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) stepped up its campaign against tax evaders by filing four regional tax cases at the Department of Justice worth P69 million, including one against a supplier of the SM Group of Companies, weeks before the deadline for the filing of income tax returns.

The biggest case involves P51.5 million in taxes from the sale of a 1,282-square meter parcel of land in Pangasinan wherein the Certificate Authorizing Registration (CAR) covering the land was falsified.

The BIR filed the case against Humberto Cason Solis, the seller, Elma de la Cruz Versoza, the buyer, and the Registrar of Deeds of Dagupan City, lawyer Cecilia Mumar.

Solis sold Versoza a commercial property in Dagupan City but they falsified the CAR that changed the classification of the property to agricultural.

During the BIR’s investigation, they learned that the property is also used in trade and business and should have been subjected to the expanded withholding tax and value added tax (VAT).

The BIR computed Versoza’s deficiency expanded withholding tax at P7.24 million including surcharge and interest while Solis’ deficiency taxes totalled P44.25 million involving deficiency income taxes of P27.99 million, deficiency documentary stamp taxes of P1.81 million and deficiency value added taxes of P14.45 million.

According to the BIR, Solis and Versoza evaded the payment of the expanded withholding tax, income tax, value added tax (VAT) and documentary stamp tax by using falsified documents to effect the transfer of the property and that wouldn’t have happened had Mumar not effected the registration of the document that transferred the property.

The second case involved P10.93 million in taxes from a supplier of the SM Group of Companies, Year Full Fashion Enterprises Inc., wherein its president, Charlie Chan, and treasurer, Irene Chan, were named respondents.

The Cubao-based Year Full Fashion Enterprises was found to have sold P66.35 million to the SM Group of Companies in 2010 based on data provided by the conglomerate but Year Full Fashion Enterprises declared sales of only P29.85 million.

By underdeclaring its sales, Year Full Fashion Enterprises evaded the payment of correct income and value added taxes.

The BIR computed the company’s deficiency income tax for 2010 at P3.46 million including surcharge and interest and its deficiency value added tax at P7.74 million for a total of P10.93 million.

The BIR also filed a tax evasion case against the San Pablo City-based Southserv Logistics Corp., its president, Retituto Raflores, and its treasurer, Teresita de Gracia.

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Tetangco says population will bolster growth

Wednesday, 28 March, 2012 Written by Elaine Ramos Alanguilan

A large pool of young workers will support economic growth in the next few years, Bangko Sentral Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said Wednesday.

Tetangco said in a speech before the Philippine Investment Forum the country’s large population of young workers with purchasing power provides the economy with the so-called demographic dividends that are good for consumption and investments.

He said the Philippines would enter the demographic sweet spot by 2015.  “Population would be a source of economic growth,” he said, adding that the concept of demographic dividends has been proven historically.

“That concept, the demographic window, is that period in an economy’s history where more people or a prominent portion of the population is of working age.  That means these people have the purchasing power, purchasing capacity, which can drive consumption, investment and therefore faster economy,” said Tetangco.

“Our average age is 22.2 years. So by 2015, we’ll reach that window.  We’ve seen the experience of other countries — Thailand and Indonesia—in the region that have benefited from these demographic dividends,” said Tetangco.

He said the Philippines would be the last major economy in Asia to enter the so-called demographic sweet spot. “If you’re an investor and you’re looking at the potential of an economy in terms of the size of the market, they will consider these demographic window that the Philippines is about to enter,” said Tetangco.

Tetangco noted that nearly half a million graduates enter the labor force each year, providing companies with a big pool of manpower to fill their requirements.

“If the economy is growing, underlying that growth would be the increase of employment as well.  So as you grow, you can generate more employment and therefore you can have more people employed who are able to spend and help fuel growth in the economy,” said Tetangco.

 (Published in the Manila Standard Today newspaper on /2012/March/29)

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Anchor Land profit up 49%

[ Malaya.com.ph ] March 29, 2012

ANCHOR Land Holdings Inc. (Anchor Land) said profit for last year reached P842 million, 49 percent higher than the previous year’s P566 million.

This is the fifth year of consecutive income and revenue growths for the fast-rising company since its listing in 2007, the company said.

Revenues reached P3.02 billion, up from the previous year’s P2.66 billion, while earnings before taxes reached P1 billion compared with the previous year’s P619.66 million.

"We have achieved several milestones in 2011 that further strengthened our industry position as one of the fastest-growing in terms of profitability, organization and project offerings. This solidified position in turn has opened more opportunities that we intend to take advantage to the fullest and to work towards enhancing our shareholder value even more," said Anchor Land chairman Stephen Lee.

"Our healthy bottomline is attributed mainly to a combination of higher revenues and lower costs, which came in marginally lower than the year before. This efficient cost control is quite significant given the ongoing expansion of our manpower resources while undertaking several major projects," he added.

Lee said assets grew to P11 billion, a 53 percent increase from the previous year’s P7 billion.

He said that the company’s new projects in 2012 will be a mix of horizontal, vertical and commercial developments as part of Anchor Land’s continuing efforts to create new markets and expand existing ones, particularly its portfolio of commercial projects that should provide more recurring income in the near to medium term.

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