By Neil Jerome C. Morales (The
Philippine Star) | Updated May 7, 2014 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - Improved
performance of the residential, shopping center, office, and hotels and resorts
businesses allowed property giant Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) to grow its profits by
a quarter in the first three months of the year.
Full-year growth will be supported by
the ongoing expansion of its product lines in mixed-use developments, a company
official said yesterday.
ALI’s net income jumped 25 percent to
P3.46 billion in the first quarter from P2.76 billion a year ago while
consolidated revenues rose 23 percent to P22.75 billion from P18.52 billion on
the back of the “strong performance of all business units, from property
development to commercial leasing, as well as the services business.”
“The solid performance of each of our
business units contributed to ALI’s overall earnings. We expect sustained
growth to be driven by continuous development in our mixed-use estates as we
further enhance our residential, shopping center, office, and hotels and
resorts offerings,” said ALI president and CEO Bernard Vincent Dy.
Bulk of revenues were derived from
real estate sales that gained 19 percent to P20.98 billion, driven by the
strong performance across the property development, commercial leasing and
service businesses, ALI said.
Property development, which includes
the sale of residential lots and units, office spaces, and commercial and
industrial lots, improved 12 percent to P13.47 billion in the first quarter
from P12.06 billion year-on-year.
Revenues from the residential business
climbed 36 percent to P11.02 billion. Sales take-up for the first three months
hit P21.29 billion, equivalent to a monthly average of P7.1 billion that is
nine percent higher from P6.54 billion last year.
Combined revenues for shopping
centers, office and hotels and resorts operations hit P5.28 billion, up 29
percent from P4.09 billion a year ago. Specifically, revenues from shopping
centers rose 16 percent to P2.84 billion as occupied gross leasable area (GLA)
rose 11 percent year-on-year.
Dy said the opening of Fairview
Terraces that houses department store Wellworth added 57,000 square meters
(sqm) of leasable space to ALI’s portfolio of malls, supporting the plan to
grow the recurring revenue- generating side of the business.
For its part, revenues from office
leasing operations surged 49 percent to P1.06 billion in the first quarter from
P711 million last year. Total occupied business process outsourcing (BPO) GLA
expanded to 424,529 sqm. as of end-March, up 14 percent from last year.
In terms of the tourism business, ALI
said revenues of its hotels and resorts unit, which operates 2,151 hotel rooms,
spiked 47 percent to P1.37 billion from P931 million year-on-year, primarily
driven by improved performance of new hotels and resorts.
“We look forward to serving more
people as we continue our push for expansion,” Dy said. ALI plans to launch 78
projects consisting of 30,000 residential units this year with an estimated
value of P142 billion. The five residential brands of the property firm
launched a total of 28,482 units worth P108 billion last year.
In a separate disclosure, parent firm
Ayala Corp. (AC) said its wholly-owned subsidiary AYC Finance Ltd. has
completed the issuance of $300-million bonds that are exchangeable for common
shares of ALI. The bonds, which carry a yield of 0.5 percent due 2019, were
listed and quoted in the Singapore Exchange yesterday.
Proceeds from the bond sale will be
used for general corporate purposes, investments and operations directly under
AC such as the Daang Hari-South Luzon Expressway road link project.
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