By Neil Jerome C. Morales (The
Philippine Star) | Updated October 7, 2013 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - Property giant
Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) is starting the construction and development of three
major mixed-use projects in the fourth quarter.
Robust demand for ALI’s commercial,
office and residential offerings is supported by strong economic fundamentals,
its top executive said.
“I think we will have three major
groundbreaking that we will be doing,” said ALI president and CEO Antonino T.
Aquino.
“At the macro level, we see things
continue to be very positive. It is hitting the expectations we have that’s why
we are encouraged to continue to with the project launches that we’re having,”
Aquino added.
ALI will conduct groundbreaking for
three major mixed-use projects across the country in the fourth quarter.
Specifically, the property firm will
start construction in the P12 billion South Park District Alabang, Muntinlupa;
the expansion of retail offering Solenad in the Nuvali 1,860-hectare Nuvali
township in Laguna; and the P15-billion Atria Park District in Iloilo, Aquino
said.
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“We’re going to do a lot of
groundbreaking already with regards to the Iloilo project. We will be having
some developments on the residential, shopping center and hospital side,”
Aquino said.
Atria Park District is ALI’s
live-work-play offering in Iloilo while Nuvali is the eco-inspired township
development of ALI in Laguna. The 6.6-hectare South Park District, which will
host seven residential towers, two office buildings and a shopping mall, is
ALI’s first mixed-use community and commercial project in Alabang.
Aquino said high takeup for ALI’s
projects is backed by the growth trajectory of the Philippines.
“We are all still benefiting from what
we’re having so far as the Philippine economy is concerned notwithstanding the
pains happening in other parts of the world,” Aquino said.
For instance, the local economy is
buoyed by overseas Filipino remittances, business process outsourcing industry
and consumer spending, Aquino said.
In the first semester, the Philippine
economy’s growth accelerated to 7.6 percent from 6.4 percent a year ago. The
recent figures allowed the Philippine economy to stay well above the
government’s full-year target of six to seven percent economic growth.
“We continue to see that business
fundamentals continue to be quite solid,” Aquino said.
“We are quite optimistic about how the
results will be insofar as the coming quarters are concerned,” he added.
In the first half, profits of ALI
surged 30 percent to P5.62 billion from P4.33 billion last year while
consolidated revenues spiked 36 percent to P36.63 billion from P27 billion a
year ago.
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