By Neil Jerome C. Morales (The
Philippine Star) | Updated October 7, 2013 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - Upscale property
developer Rockwell Land Corp. will pursue its P5-billion fundraising next month
through the issuance of bonds.
Fresh funding will support the
company’s project development that will shore up the real estate firm’s income
to a record P1.4 billion this year, an executive said.
“I think if we have to use our
financial statements, [the bond sale] has to happen in November,” said Rockwell
Land president Nestor Padilla.
Padilla said Rockwell Land is not
planning to upsize its bond sale given the company’s conservative financial
stance. The company allotted P12 billion for its capital spending this year.
In a special meeting last month,
Rockwell Land’s board of directors “approved the public offering of up to P5
billion seven-year and one quarter unsecured peso-denominated fixed-rate
bonds.”
“Proceeds of the said bonds issuance
will be used to partially finance its various capital expenditures particularly
the Proscenium project,” Rockwell Land earlier said.
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The upscale property developer of the
Lopez family allotted P26 billion for five towers of the Proscenium in Makati.
The 3.6-hectare Proscenium will allow Rockwell Land to generate development
income for the next eight years.
As of end-2012, Rockwell Land recorded
P2.5 billion sales takeup from the Proscenium which is designed by
“starchitect” Carlos Ott.
Robust demand for its property
projects will jack up the earnings of Rockwell Land to another record level
this year.
Rockwell Land is also the company
behind 53 Benitez, a two-tower, mid-rise residential development designed for
startup families in Quezon City.
“We will make P1.4 billion income,
somewhere there,” Padilla said, adding that development income would account
for bulk of the profits.
Last year, the property developer’s
earnings jumped 23 percent to a record P1.1 billion, up from P914.9 million in
2011.
In the first half, the firm’s net
income attributable to equity holders of the parent firm jumped 25 percent to
P554.8 million from P441.3 million a year ago.
Moving forward, the company plans to
be more visible to the investors given plans to increase its public float,
Padilla said.
So far, Rockwell Land has a public
ownership level of 13.05 percent, well above the 10 percent required by the
local bourse.
Rockwell was created in 1995 after the
shutdown of the thermal power plant of the Lopez group. The former power plant
complex is now a self-contained, mixed-use community with residential towers,
office buildings, a shopping mall, and a graduate school.
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