By Zinnia B. Dela Peña (The Philippine
Star) | Updated February 17, 2014 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - Robinsons Land
Corp. (RLC) is stepping up its expansion this year with plans to roll out P8 to
P10-billion worth of residential condominium projects as well as seven new
shopping malls and two office buildings.
In a chance interview, RLC president
Frederick Go said four of the seven new malls had already opened – Robinsons
Place Malolos, its second shopping center in Bulacan; Robinsons Place Roxas in Capiz
City, Robinsons Town Mall Malabon and Robinsons Place Butuan.
On the other hand, Robinsons Place
Santiago in Isabela is slated for opening this week, Go said
Go said the last two malls will open
in the fourth quarter of its fiscal year ending September this year.
The company’s shopping mall network
will reach 39 by the end of September, increasing its leasable space by 18
percent.
For next year, RLC plans to boost its
gross leasable area (GLA) by 155,000 square meters with the opening of three
new malls and the expansion of two existing ones. This will bring total mall GLA to 1.077
million sqm by end-September 2015.
The two office buildings – Cyber Alpha
and Cyber Beta – are expected to be completed soon which will boost the group’s
office GLA by 80,000 sqm.
RLC is building its first office tower
in the Bridgetown Business Park, a P30-billion mixed-use development located on
a two-hectare property in Libis, Quezon City. The first building will make
available 35,000 sqm of GLA which should boost RLC’s office GLA by 13 percent
to 308,000 upon completion in 2015.
For the first quarter of its fiscal
year ending September this year, RLC saw its earnings drop 13.4 percent to
P1.03 billion, largely due to a P316 million one-time write-off from the
damages in its mall in Tacloban (P297 milion) and fire of Robinsons Galleria
(P19 million). Excluding the write-offs, net profit would have risen by 13.2
percent to P1.35 billion.
Total real estate revenues reached
P3.98 billion, up 19.3 percent from P3.34 billion in the same period a year
ago.
The residential business saw a 38
percent growth in revenues to P1.7 billion while the commercial centers
division pumped in P1.95 billion or 45 percent of total revenues, posting a
10.2 percent growth.
The office buildings group, meanwhile,
contributed eight percent or P361.8 million of RLC’s aggregate revenues. The
amount is slightly higher than the P358.5 million registered a year earlier.
The hotels division, on the other
hand, chipped in P401.2 million of RLC’s total revenues, up 0.9 percent.
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