ALI to buy back P1.3B worth of shares

Posted on May 31, 2012 10:50:20 PM [ BusinessWorld Online ]

AYALA LAND, Inc. (ALI) is set to redeem in July some P1.3 billion worth of non-voting preferred shares from its stockholders as part of a capital restructuring to adjust to last year’s Supreme Court ruling on foreign equity limits.

 

The property arm of the country’s oldest conglomerate yesterday said all outstanding preferred shares -- earlier reported to number 13.04 billion -- will be redeemed “effective July 16 from the shareholders of record as of June 4, 2012,” a disclosure to the local bourse showed.

Ayala Land will pay a redemption price of 10 centavos per share, as well as a cash dividend of P0.0035 apiece for the period October 18, 2011 to July 16, 2012, the disclosure added.

This, as the property firm plans to sell in a few weeks 13.04 billion preferred shares, this time with voting rights, only to common shareholders.

The transactions will lower the company’s foreign ownership of voting shares to 19% from 38% as of end-January this year in response to a high court ruling ordering the use of a company’s voting shares in applying the constitutionally-mandated 40% foreign ownership limit on firms.

While technically not in violation of the foreign ownership law, Ayala Land earlier said it wanted to have enough “room” to adjust its foreign ownership level.

In the meantime, Ayala Land has hiked its net income for the first quarter by 31.48% to P2.13 billion from P1.62 billion last year as better sales in most property segments offset an increase in expenses.

For 2012, the developer has allotted a record P37 billion in capital expenditures to fund around 67 new projects with an estimated sales value of P90 billion, as well as for the acquisition of new properties moving forward.

Shares of Ayala Land slid by 1.31% to P19.64 each yesterday from P19.90 at its previous close. -- Franz Jonathan G. de la Fuente

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SM Prime strengthens hold on Cebu with second mall

Posted on May 31, 2012 10:33:42 PM [ BusinessWorld Online ]

SM PRIME Holdings, Inc. is set to strengthen its foothold in Cebu by opening a mall dubbed SM City Consolacion tomorrow in a bid to take advantage of the province’s economic growth prospects.

The retail center, which is located on the Cebu North Road in Barangay Lamac, Consolacion, Cebu, is the company’s second mall in the province after nearby SM City Cebu, which opened in 1993. It is also SM Prime’s second new mall this year after SM City Olongapo opened last February.

“The region of Cebu remains to be a key expansion area for SM malls.

This reflects our continued confidence in the prospects of Cebu, given its dynamic population and flourishing business landscape, especially its vibrant export sector, which contributes significantly to the country’s economic growth,” Hans T. Sy, SM Prime president said in a disclosure yesterday.

Consolacion, the town where the new mall is located, is a first-class municipality that boasts of industries such as garments, furniture making, manufacturing, shipbuilding and ship repairing.

SM City Consolacion, which has a total leasable area of 57,842 square meters (sq. m.), is already 89% leased out to tenants.

Mall amenities include a tech-oriented Cyberzone, a 668-person food court, four cinemas that will seat 1,488 persons, and over 700 parking slots.

The opening of SM City Consolacion comes amid SM Prime’s continued expansion in Cebu City via the construction of a P4.5-billion shopping mall, which set to be the province’s biggest, in the South Road Properties district.

Upon completion in the third quarter of 2014, the new mall -- which will be located within the 30-hectare mixed-use SM Seaside City -- will have a gross floor area of 241,600 sq. m.

“This is proof of SM’s vision for the growth of Cebu City and the positive impact that its malls have on the lives of Cebuanos,” SM Prime said.

Previously, SM Prime said it was allocating a P21-billion capital expenditure for 2012, of which P14 billion is intended for the Philippines and P7 billion for China. These will be sourced from a mix of debt and internally-generated funds.

To further finance its capex, SM Prime last Tuesday announced that it had raised P7.5 billion in fresh funds from the issuance of fixed-rate and floating-rate notes that was reportedly snapped up by institutional investors.

This year, SM Prime aims to have a mall portfolio of 46 Philippine malls and five China malls by the year-end, with an estimated combined gross floor area of 6.3 million sq. m.

SM Prime realized a 15% growth in its first quarter net income this year to P2.43 billion versus P2.12 billion in the same period last year.

SM Prime shares lost 2% to close at P12.74 yesterday from P13.00 at its previous close. -- Franz Jonathan G. de la Fuente

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SM Land's TwoE-com named 'best office development' in Phl

(The Philippine Star) Updated June 01, 2012 12:00 AM

Manila, Philippines -  TwoE-comCenter, an iconic 15-level twin tower structure developed by SM Land in the Mall of Asia Complex (MOAC) in Pasay City, has been cited as Best Office Development in the Philippines in the 2012 Asia Pacific Property Awards.

The Asia Pacific Property Awards is an annual regional competition organized by the renowned International Property Awards group based in the United Kingdom, which has been seeking out the most outstanding real estate developments and professionals across the globe for the past 17 years.

This is the first time that the highest five-star commendation in the category of Philippine office developments has been won.

The 2012 awards are presented in cooperation with HSBC and the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors – Asia. Judging was carried out through a meticulous process involving a panel of over 60 international experts covering every aspect of the property business. The awarding ceremony and gala presentation dinner were held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on April 27.

“We are privileged to receive this citation, which we view as a testament to the success of SM Land in genuinely addressing the needs of our stakeholders and clients,” says David Rafael, SM Land senior vice president and head of its Commercial Properties Group. “The recognition is fitting for such a world-class development as TwoE-com, with its iconic architecture and roster of multinational tenants.”

TwoE-com is the second in a series of four office buildings comprising the premier business hub of SM Land within its masterplanned flagship estate MOAC. The E-com buildings primarily target the burgeoning business process outsourcing (BPO) industry with its high-technology facilities, capabilities, and significant design features such as sprawling floor plates of up to 6,000 sqm, totaling around 107,000 sqm in gross floor area (GFA).

TwoE-com is designed by Miami-based international design firm Arquitectonica, with FS Lim & Associates as the local architect of record.

“Given that TwoE-com is the first recipient of the five-star Best Office Development award in the Philippines, SM Land also takes special pride in putting the country on the international map of commercial properties,” adds Rafael.

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Developer issues more shares to key stockholder

Posted on May 30, 2012 10:06:48 PM [ BusinessWorld Online ]

LISTED DEVELOPER Global-Estate Resorts, Inc. has increased the number of its outstanding shares to make way for convertible warrants issued to a major stockholder, a disclosure to the local bourse showed yesterday.
 

“Lim Asia Multi-Strategy Fund, Inc., a holder of Global-Estate Resorts warrants, converted 62 million of its holdings into 62 million common shares of the company,” the disclosure read.

As a result, the firm’s total and outstanding shares rose by 0.74% to 8.418 million from a previous 8.356 million.

Lim Asia, a unit of Hong Kong-based Lim Advisors Ltd., is Global-Estate Resorts’ eighth-largest stockholder, with six million shares in the company as of end-March, according to an earlier filing to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Last September, Lim Asia similarly converted six million warrants into six million common Global-Estate Resorts shares, earlier reports showed.

Global-Estate Resorts was first incorporated in 1994 as Fil-Estate Land, Inc.

It had consolidated the real estate interests and development activities of the Sobrepeña-led Fil-Estate Group of Companies.

It was acquired by the Andrew L. Tan-led Alliance Global Group, Inc. for P5 billion in 2010.

The company is primarily engaged in the development of residential subdivisions, integrated residential sites, as well as golf ranges and other leisure-related properties. It also has vertical developments of mixed-use towers in Metro Manila.

Global-Estate Resorts directly owns 1,062 hectares of land valued at P2.6 billion, strategically located in various parts of the country, but mostly in the CALABARZON area (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) according to earlier reports.

Projects currently in the pipeline include four high-rise projects in Metro Manila and five subdivision projects.

In preparation for the development of future integrated tourism estate projects in Boracay Island and Tagaytay City, the company had moved to double its authorized capital stock to P20 billion.

Global-Estate Resorts hiked its first quarter net income by 45.20% to P54.77 million from year-ago levels on the back of higher real estate sales.

Revenues expanded by 45.09% to P378.92 million versus P261.16 million, year on year, while total costs and expenses grew by 51.16% to P328.13 million from P217.08 million.

Shares of Global-Estate Resorts rose by 1.09% to P1.86 apiece yesterday. -- F. J. G. de la Fuente

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Corona trial fails to dampen demand for Megaworld condos

By Czeriza Valencia (The Philippine Star) Updated May 30, 2012 12:00 AM

MANILA, Philippines - Megaworld Corp. managed to register a 6.9-percent increase in the sales of its high-end residential properties Fort Bonifacio in the first four months of the year despite being dragged into the impeachment proceedings against Chief Justice Renato Corona, according to an executive.

In an interview late Monday, Megaworld senior vice president for Sales and Marketing Noli D. Hernandez, said cumulative sales of its high end residential developments in Fort Bonifacio rose to P4.6 billion during the months of January to May 2012 from P4.3 billion from January to May 2011.

These are developments in integrated communities of Bonifacio Global City, McKinley Hill, Forbes Town Center and McKinley West.

Hernandez attributed the increase in sales to increased demand by end- users who are usually young professionals and young businessmen who want to cut transportation cost and effort by living within communities where they also work.

He said this shows that more people now have disposable income.

In January, Hernandez represented the real estate developer in the witness stand in the impeachment court to explain the P10-million discount given for the Bellagio Tower I Penthouse purchased by Corona’s wife Cristina.

The price of the unit, which was originally placed at P24.5 million, was slashed by P5 million because the unit was “semi-bare” and “water damage” caused by a typhoon. It would therefore be more expensive to have the unit repaired and returned to the market. Another P5 million price reduction was implemented because the Coronas completed the payment within a short period of time.

The Bellagio, which is composed of three towers, is one of Megaworld’s developments in Bonifacio Global City.

At the eve of the handing down of the decision on the impeachment trial against Corona, Hernandez said that whatever the outcome of the trial would be, the effect would be “negligible.”

 “I think the effect is negligible. If there are any,” he said. “Life goes on in the business community. It’s not something that we really spend the night worrying about.”

Megaworld reported total revenues of P7 billion in the first quarter of 2012 up by 22 percent from P5.7 billion in 2011.

After Hernandez’ testimony at the Senate there were questions raised on whether real estate developers should conduct a background check on high-profile clients.

 “There is no need for us to do that,” said Hernandez. “It is a very tedious process and its not something that we want to subject our buyers to that.”

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