By Neil
Jerome C. Morales (The Philippine Star) | Updated June 24, 2013 - 12:00am
MANILA,
Philippines - Property giant Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) is venturing into healthcare
for the first time by introducing hospitals in its provincial mixed-use developments.
The hospitals
would complement the commercial, office and residential offerings of ALI in its
regional centers, its top executive said.
“ALI will
provide hospital buildings in selected areas and will have a professional
medical group manage the facility,” ALI president and CEO Antonino T. Aquino
said in an e-mail.
“The first
facility is under construction in our Atria mixed-use development in Iloilo,”
Aquino said.
Its first
hospital project is a P600-million partnership with Panay Medical Ventures Inc.
which is a group of local doctors that were trained at the University of the
Philippines-Philippine General Hospital.
Aquino said
mixed-use developments in Makati and Bonifacio Global City in Taguig have
benefited significantly from the presence of hospitals.
Hospitals in
the business districts include Makati Medical Center and St. Luke’s Medical
Center.
“Together
with schools and churches, our residential, shopping center, office and hotel
products completed these developments and made them successful business
districts,” Aquino said.
“We would
like to follow this best practice (of putting up hospitals) in our other
regional centers,” Aquino said.
So far, the
property unit of the Ayala conglomerate has 31 growth centers nationwide, up
from just nine in 2009. It has 5,694 hectares of land bank.
Growth
centers and mixed- use developments are located in areas like Bacolod, Cebu,
Iloilo in the Visayas; Pampanga, Subic and Bataan in Central Luzon; Quezon
City, Fairview and Pasig in Metro Manila; and Davao and Cagayan de Oro in
Mindanao.
It would be
the first venture of Ayala Corp., the country’s oldest conglomerate, in the
healthcare sector. To date, Pangilinan-led Metro Pacific Investments Corp. is
the largest healthcare group in the country given its seven hospitals and a bed
capacity of around 2,000.
The property firm
allotted P65.5 billion in capital expenditures this year as it plans to launch
69 new projects worth P129 billion to ensure continuous growth in the coming
years.
In the first
quarter, profits of the property developer jumped 30 percent to P2.76 billion
on the back of better performance across all business segments. Consolidated
revenues hit P18.53 billion, up 38 percent from the P13.39 billion in the same
period last year.
The property
arm of the Ayala conglomerate is wrapping up its 5-10-15 program which was
launched in 2009 amid the global financial crisis.
It is a
five-year plan ending in 2014 that aims to boost net income to P10 billion and
return on equity to 15 percent.
ALI is set to
continue this year the trend of double-digit growth in revenues and profits.
Earnings of ALI surged 27 percent to P9.04 billion last year from P7.14 billion
on strong revenues from residential, hotel, office and commercial projects.
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