By Neil Jerome Morales (The Philippine
Star) | Updated May 19, 2014 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - Property firm
Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC) is beefing up its shopping malls, hotels and office
space offerings in the medium term, riding on the strength of the economy.
“Given the growth prospects of the
Philippine economy, we will continue to expand all our businesses,” said RLC
president and chief operating officer Frederick D. Go.
“For our commercial centers division,
we will open seven malls in fiscal year 2014. All our locations are carefully
selected in the fast-growing cities in the provinces,” Go said.
By the end of 2014 fiscal year in
September, RLC’s total leasable area will hit 1.07 million square meters
(sqm.), up 18 percent from 913,000 sqm a year ago.
RLC will further increase its shopping
centers with one new mall in fiscal year 2015, and four new commercial centers
and two expanded projects in fiscal year 2016. Hence, its leasable area will
reach 1.15 million sqm and 1.29 million sqm in fiscal year 2015 and 2016,
respectively.
For its part, the Robinsons Offices
will also put up more business process outsourcing (BPO) towers.
“Backed by the robust BPO industry of
the Philippines, we continue to be bullish on the growth prospect of our office
buildings division,” Go said.
Construction are under way for
Cyberscape Alpha and Beta while two new office buildings will be created in the
P30-billion Bridgetowne mixed-use project in Quezon City.
Net leasable area for the office
division will climb from 193,000 sqm. in fiscal year 2013 to 273,000 sqm. this
year, 308,000 sqm. in fiscal year 2016 and 343,000 sqm. in fiscal year 2017.
Go said RLC is also expanding its Go
Hotel brand to 1,122 rooms in fiscal year 2014 and 1,411 rooms in fiscal year
2015 from 757 rooms at the end of fiscal year 2013.
Robinsons Hotels & Resorts, which
operates Crowne Plaza Galleria Manila, Holiday Inn Galleria Manila, Summit
Circle Cebu (formerly Cebu Midtown Hotel), Summit Ridge Hotel and Go Hotels,
will end the year with 2,070 rooms from 1,623 rooms a year ago.
For the residential segment, Go said
that “in fiscal year 2014, we earmarked to launch P8 billion worth of project
launches in terms of sales value across all four residential brand segments,”
Go said.
The property firm booked lower profits
in the first half of its fiscal year 2014, dragged by higher expenses and
losses from fire and typhoon-damaged malls. Net income attributable to equity
holders of parent firm slipped eight percent to P2.23 billion in the October
2013 to March 2014 period. It incurred a P215.4-million loss from typhoon and
fire losses.
RLC is jacking up its capital spending
by a fifth to P16 billion in the fiscal year to fasttrack the construction of
malls, office buildings and hotels.
Specifically, 80 percent or P12.8
billion will be spent for the construction and completion of shopping malls,
office buildings and hotels while the remaining 20 percent or P3.2 billion is
allotted for residential condominiums and housing units.
Aside from property, the Gokongwei
family is also into retail (Robinsons Retail Holdings), budget airline (Cebu
Pacific), banking (Robinsons Bank Corp.), petrochemicals (JG Summit
Petrochemicals Corp.), and snacks and beverage (Universal Robina Corp.).
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