Posted on
April 17, 2013 11:16:12 PM [ BusinessWorld Online ]
AYALALAND
Hotels and Resorts Corp., the hotel development arm of listed Ayala Land, Inc.
plans to launch within the year a new brand of “affordable” hotels that target
businessmen on the go, a top company official told reporters yesterday.
Sites for initial projects are Muntinlupa and
Bacolod cities.
“We are
conceptualizing a new product offering catering to the $60-per-night market. We
plan to start with the development in the old Nestlé development in South Park
(District in Muntinlupa City) and possibly in Bacolod and in Iloilo (cities),”
Jose Emmanuel H. Jalandoni, AyalaLand Hotels and Resorts president, said in a
briefing yesterday following Ayala Land’s annual stockholders’ meeting at
Fairmont Makati.
“We would
like to make our hotels more affordable, targeting business travelers who can
afford only P2,000-3,000 per night.” Mr. Jalandoni said, noting that Ayala
Land’s other homegrown boutique hotel brand, Seda, charges around $120 or
P5,000 per night.
“We hope to
ground-break the affordable brand by the third or fourth quarter of this year,
and in a year’s time, we will be up and running,” he added.
GROWING
AyalaLand
Hotels and Resorts, incorporated in 2010, is a wholly owned Ayala Land unit
that serves as a holding company for the latter’s hotels and resorts
operations.
Ayala Land’s
hotel and resorts portfolio currently totals 1,467 rooms: 192 rooms in El Nido,
Palawan (Lagen, Milinoc, Apulit and Pangulasian Island Resorts); 312 rooms in
Fairmont Makati; 179 rooms in Seda Bonifacio Global City (BGC); 150 rooms in
Seda Cagayan de Oro; 634 rooms in Hotel InterContinental and Cebu City
Marriott.
By end-2013,
this complement is expected to grow to 2,114 rooms with the opening of Holiday
Inn & Suites Makati and two more Seda hotels in NUVALI, Laguna and Davao.
To further
enhance its resorts, Ayala Land is open to adding residential developments in El
Nido.
“It could be
a combination: leisure homes or retirement homes,” Bernard Vincent O. Dy, Ayala
Land executive vice-president, said in the same briefing.
“It will be
very balanced. If ever there will be a conflict, it will be in favor of
nature,” assured Antonino T. Aquino, Ayala Land president and chief executive
officer.
At the same
time, AyalaLand Hotels and Resorts will also tap the affluent market by
introducing a high-end version of Seda.
“We’re also
going upscale. We’ll be developing a Seda Suites product in BGC to add to the
current Seda boutique development there. It will have bigger rooms, easily
around 40 square meters in… size,” Mr. Jalandoni said.
In a separate
development, Ayala Land said it has sold off its entire stake of 60% in its
office leasing subsidiary Asian i-Office Properties, Inc. to affiliate Cebu
Property Ventures and Development Corp. (CPVDC), citing the need to further
consolidate its Cebu-based office portfolio and thereby improve operations.
Asian
i-Office Properties, incorporated in 2008, is an Ayala Land-owned vehicle in
charge of the management and operation of two business process outsourcing
(BPO) buildings in Asiatown IT Park in Cebu, namely:
eBloc and
Peak Building A, according to the same annual report.
CPVDC,
meanwhile, sells lots at Asiatown IT Park and is 76.3%-owned by listed Cebu
Holdings, Inc., a 47%-owned affiliate of Ayala Land incorporated in 1988 to
manage and operate Ayala Center Cebu and sell lots within the Cebu Business
Park in Cebu province.
“This
transaction will allow the company (Ayala Land) to consolidate into CPVDC the
development and operations of BPO offices in Cebu and businesses related
thereto, which should lead to value enhancement, improved efficiencies,
streamlined processes, and synergy creation among the company and its
subsidiaries. This is also consistent with the thrust of the Cebu Holdings
group to build up its recurring income base,” Ayala Land said in a disclosure
yesterday.
CONSOLIDATING
Ayala Land
has recently been consolidating ownership of its office subsidiaries.
On Monday,
Ayala Land bought a 32% stake in office space affiliate ALI Property Partners
Co. (APPCo) for P3.52 billion, fully acquiring APPCo in a bid to beef up its
leasing portfolio and boost recurring income.
Ayala Land
was organized in 1988 when its parent, conglomerate Ayala Corp., decided to
spin off its real estate division into an independent subsidiary to enhance
management focus on real estate.
Ayala Land
grew its net income by 27.69% to a record P10.33 billion last year from P8.09
billion in 2011, driven by strong sales of its residential business. In the
same comparative periods, revenues -- consisting of real estate sales, interest
and investment income, equity in net earnings of associates, and other income
-- increased by 23.32% to P54.52 billion from P44.21 billion, while costs and
expenses rose 23.28% to P41.30 billion from P33.50 billion.
Ayala Land
has earmarked P65.5 billion for capital expenditures this year -- P46 billion
for project completion and roughly P20 billion for land banking -- partly to
bankroll 69 projects worth a total of P129 billion.
Ayala Land
shares lost 10 centavos or 0.33% to P30.35 each yesterday. -- F. J. G. de la
Fuente
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