posted October 19, 2015 at 11:45 pm
by Ian Sayson [ manilastandardtoday.com]
Cecilia Yap
Billionaire Manuel Villar, who made a
fortune building affordable homes, is considering merging his residential and
shopping mall units as he turns housing projects across the country into
self-contained communities.
Combining Vista Land & Lifescapes
Inc., the biggest Philippine homebuilder, with the income stream from shopping
center developer Starmalls Inc. “could make sense,” according to Villar, a
former politician who’s chairman of both companies.
Manuel Villar
The two have a combined market value
of about $2.5 billion and the stakes held by the tycoon and his family are
worth together more than $1 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“That is always a topic of debate
among our officers and among our bankers,” Villar said in an interview on the
sidelines of the Forbes Global CEO Conference in Manila last week. “We are looking
into that.”
Vista Land rose 1.1 percent Monday to
close at P5.46.
A similar move in 2013 by billionaire
Henry Sy, the nation’s richest man, catapulted his SM Prime Holdings Inc. from
the country’s biggest shopping mall operator into the biggest developer by
market value, unseating Ayala Land Inc. The merger allowed SM Prime to
undertake projects other than shopping centers and develop what it calls “micro
cities” around its malls.
Vista Land, which sells homes priced
as low as P500,000 ($10,900), has a market value of P45.3 billion, while
Starmalls, which has nine shopping centers, is worth P68.8 billion.
Villar’s plan “allows immediate
diversification,” said Robert Ramos, Manila-based chief investment officer at
Union Bank of the Philippines. “While the housing market is expected to
continue growing, there is also a preference for developers with a steady
income from leasing and rent,” he said.
Vista Land, which has a presence in 92
towns and cities in 35 provinces, has identified 23 residential projects that
can be developed into what Villar calls “communicities” by adding shopping
malls, grocers, department stores, schools, hotels and hospitals. In areas
where there’s demand, offices will be built for outsourcing companies, he said.
Vista Land will develop these
communities, while Starmalls provides the large-box shopping centers and
offices, Villar said. Vista Land has also built shopping arcades in some of its
projects.
“What do homeowners need? You need to
shop. You need to watch movies,” Villar said. “We want to provide all of that.”
The tycoon’s All Day convenience
stores has 70 outlets that will continue to expand, while his supermarket,
which just started, is rolling out its second and third outlets. All Home, his
home-improvement shop, will have 12 stores by year-end, with the prospect of
growing into a chain of 50 outlets across the country, he said.
Villar, a former senator who lost in
the 2010 presidential elections, is estimated by Forbes magazine to have a
$1.56 billion net worth. He returned as Vista Land chairman in 2013 to work
with his son Manuel Paolo Villar, who’s president of the company. With
Bloomberg
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