Posted on April 26, 2015 10:07:00 PM [
BusinessWorld Online ]
By Krista Angela M. Montealegre,
Senior Reporter
DOUBLEDRAGON Properties Corp. is
taking on fresh debt this year -- to the tune of P5 billion -- to finance the
construction of its chain of branded community malls, a company official said.
DOUBLEDRAGON Properties Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Edgar “Injap” J. Sia II talks to reporters on the sidelines of an investor show at the Mandarin Hotel in Makati City in this photo taken on March 17, 2014. -- BW FILE PHOTO
“We just raised P7.4 billion last
October in corporate notes and we’re raising another five [billion pesos],”
Hannah M. Yulo, DoubleDragon chief investment officer and senior vice-president
for corporate finance, told reporters on Tuesday last week.
The developer targets to raise the
funds -- likely through the issuance of corporate notes anew -- “hopefully in
the first half” of the year, Ms. Yulo said.
“We’re actually more interested in
raising financing in the debt market through retail bonds…” she said.
After raising P1.16 billion from an
initial public offering in March last year, DoubleDragon then issued seven-year
fixed-rate notes amounting to P7.4 billion to fund the development of its chain
of CityMalls.
“Eventually to create liquidity, once
we move up to the Main Board and to get more foreign funds interested,
eventually we have to do something in the [equity] market,” Ms. Yulo said.
The developer is listed on the Small,
Medium and Emerging Board of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), which
requires a minimum authorized capital stock of P100 million and moving to the
PSE’s Main Board would mean having to raise that by a fivefold to at least P500
million.
By 2020, DoubleDragon plans to build a
hundred CityMalls to make the latter the largest branded community mall chain
in the country. The company opened the first branch in Roxas City, Capiz last
month. It already secured 20 prime properties in key provincial areas.
“We’ll complete 25 by yearend, but
that does not necessarily mean they are all open,” Ms. Yulo said.
The firm aims to hit P1 billion in net
profit by 2016 and P4.8 billion by 2020, with the bulk coming from recurring
rental income of the one million leasable commercial space it is building.
Earnings of DoubleDragon surged 360% last
year to P560 million, while revenues from real estate sales also soared by
134.83% to P1.2 billion.
DoubleDragon is a joint venture
between Injap Investments, Inc. of Edgar “Injap” J. Sia II -- the founder of
the Mang Inasal grilled chicken restaurant chain -- and Honeystar Holdings
Corp. of Tony Tan Caktiong, chairman and founder of Jollibee Foods Corp.
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