Posted on August 25,
2013 08:58:32 PM [ BusinessWorld Online ]
REAL ESTATE developer
Century Properties Group, Inc. plans to launch next year its first mixed-use
project in San Fernando City, Pampanga, an official told reporters at the sidelines
of the 5th Annual Corporate Treasury & CFO Summit at Fairmont Makati hotel
on Thursday last week.
“We’re launching sometime next year. We don’t
have a specific date yet,” Jose Carlo R. Antonio, Century Properties chief
financial officer, said when asked on a timetable for the new project.
The company earlier this
month announced that it had acquired an eight-hectare land in Pampanga on which
it plans to develop a mixed-use project that is expected generate some P6
billion in sales from the residential component alone.
The property -- which
also marks the company’s foray to Central Luzon -- was bought from the House of
David Realty and Development Corp.
Mr. Antonio said the
value of the deal was “still confidential and still being finalized.”
He added that the
project will be “mostly affordable residential with a bit of commercial.”
The property is located
north of Metro Manila in the area of the San Fernando Interchange across SM and
Robinsons malls in that city.
“This will form part of
a city or town center that the company envisions for the area, to position it
as a future central business district in the north,” Century Properties had
said in an earlier statement on the project.
Asked if the company was
eyeing other areas outside Metro Manila, Mr. Antonio replied: “Select, very
select -- I think most of our businesses will still be here.”
“But Pampanga presents a
unique opportunity. It’s quite developed already. The roads are there,” he
explained.
“We’re still looking
mostly at central business districts aside from Pampanga; few resort
properties, but nothing firm yet.”
Century
Properties has earmarked about P7 billion for capital expenditure this year --
particularly for land bank buildup and construction -- higher than the P4
billion actually spent last year.
The
company’s net income climbed 6.57% to P1.06 billion in the first semester from
P944.5 million in the same six months last year.
Revenues
rose 7.09% to P5.29 billion from P4.94 billion, while cost and expenses
increased by 4.11% to P3.80 billion from P3.65 billion.
Its shares
lost one centavo or 0.79% to close at P1.25 apiece on Friday last week from
P1.26 each on Thursday. -- C. A. M. C. Feliciano
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