Posted on
February 06, 2013 11:32:45 PM [ BusinessWorld Online ]
PROPERTY
DEVELOPER Vista Land & Lifescapes, Inc. is likely to borrow or tap the
equity market later this year to fund part of its 2013 capital expenditures of
over P18 billion, even as bulk of this figure is expected to be bankrolled by
internally generated cash, a senior company official said in a recent
interview.
“It will be
mostly internally generated funds,” Ricardo B. Tan, Jr., Vista Land chief
financial officer and compliance officer, said on Thursday last week when asked
about how the company will fund its budget this year.
In December
last year, Vista Land said that its capital expenditure for 2013 is expected to
exceed P18 billion, bigger than the P15-billion budget it set for 2012, amid
expectations of robust demand for real estate.
Mr. Tan could
not say how much Vista Land actually spent in 2012.
“But also, we
will probably be raising (funds) either through the market or probably through
debt. We’re looking at those,” Mr. Tan said, even as he declined to cite a
specific amount and time table for the transaction.
Mr. Tan said
a portion of the company’s internally raised cash would come from the P636.07
million in proceeds Vista Land raised from the recent sale of its entire
treasury stock. Last month, Vista Land sold all of its 133.91 million treasury
shares at P4.75 apiece, mostly to foreign investors, in a bid to boost the
firm’s trading liquidity by providing more shares for the public.
Mr. Tan
hinted at a “great” 2012 in terms of earnings.
“We haven’t
disclosed our results, but I can say it was a great year,” he said without
elaborating.
For 2012,
Vista Land earlier said that it was targeting to hike its net income by 18.98%
to P4.2 billion from P3.53 billion in 2011, and increase its revenues by 18.43%
to P16 billion from P13.51 billion.
Vista Land
grew its net income by 23.76% to P3.23 billion as of September last year from
P2.61 billion in the same nine months in 2011, driven by robust sales of the
firm’s flagship residential brand Camella Homes.
Vista Land
had said in December last year that, for 2013, it would continue to pursue a
three-tiered plan to sustain growth, namely: open projects in new cities and
towns across the country, construct more condominiums in urban areas to tap
demand from young urban professionals, and build of more commercial
developments near or within Vista Land residential projects.
Shares of
Vista Land lost five centavos or 0.94% to close at P5.28 apiece yesterday from
P5.33 last Tuesday. -- Franz Jonathan G. de la Fuente
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