By Jenniffer B. Austria | Posted on
Oct. 31, 2012 at 12:01am |
[ manilastandardtoday.com ]
Ayala Land Inc. made an initial
payment of P19.46 billion to the national government for the 74-hectare Food
Terminal Inc. complex in Taguig City.
Ayala Land investor relations officer
Pamela Ann Perez said in a text message the company made the payment on Monday.
Perez said the balance of P4.84 billion was due in 2013.
Ayala Land emerged as the winning
bidder for the 74-hectare FTI in August. The property is one of the last
remaining large parcels of land in Metro Manila that is ready for immediate
development.
Ayala Land said it planned to
transform the area into another business district. Other business districts
currently being developed by Ayala Land are the Makati central business
district, Bonifacio Global City in Taguig, Vertis North in Quezon City and Cebu
Park district.
The company said while its bid was P9
billion higher than the second highest offer, the property was acquired at a
significant discount to land values in Makati and Bonifacio Global City, which
continued to appreciate overtime due to planning and continuous development.
The property firm raised P15 billion
from issuance of fixed-rate callable bonds in May and generated another P13.6
billion from top-up placement in July. It plans to use proceeds from the
offering to partly fund the group’s massive land banking program worth about
P36 billion, spread over a two- to three-year period.
A portion of the capital raised will
also be used to finance Ayala Land’s strategic partnership with Ortigas group,
which owns huge tracks of land in Quezon City, Pasig, San Juan and Mandaluyong.
Ayala Land earlier said it set aside
P15 billion in initial investment for the strategic partnership.
Ayala Land reported a 38-percent
increase in first-half net income to P4.33 billion from P3.38 billion posted in
the same period last year as revenues grew18 percent to P25 billion from P21.2
billion during the period.
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