05/11/2012 [ tribune.net.ph ]
Ayala Land Inc. is aiming to be
cautious yet aggressive in its launches this year, targeting to expand its
business in new areas close to tollroads and light rail systems rather than
expand existing project developments.
ALI CFO Jaime Ysmael said the company
is definitely interested in the eastern area of Mega Metro Manila and in the
North as they have concentrated initially in Metro Manila and the South.
“We don’t have presence (in Rizal) and
high concentration of middle income market which can accommodate some of our
products. (Meanwhile), Cavite to us is a big market. We are interested in the
main line Cavite,” he said.
In the north, the 60-hectare Plastic
City in Valenzuela is also an interest. Ysmael noted that the
Valenzuela-Bulacan area has a lot of spending power as it is an industrial area
and there has been a lot of economic activity in the there.
“There’s people requiring housing, and
Ayala has been absent in that area. The desire is to close it as soon as
possible, it really depends on the negotiation,” he said.
For the company’s interest in the
North, Ysmael said they are studying areas in Clark to identify which portions
they can actually play as he noted that the area has always been interesting to
them but the only problem is it is on a leasehold basis.
“That’s why it is hard to develop
residential. It is hard to make it work on a residential point of view,” he
said.
However, developments like office and
mall, airport, logistics, technoparks may be acceptable to some of locators in
Clark.
“Being a hub, it will open a lot of
opportunities,” he said.
He added that the entire tollway, the
Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, is an area where they would like to take
advantage of all infrastructure projects.
For the southern part of Metro Manila,
ALI is currently constructing a mall with 20,000 to 30,000 sqm and a BPO
complex with 10,000 sqm at the end of Daang Hari and Aquinaldo highway which
should be completed towards the end of next year. Ysmael added that they are
interested in additional place in the area.
Danessa O. Rivera
In the first quarter of 2012, ALI
posted a 31 percent growth in net income to P2.13 billion from P1.62 billion
posted in the same period last year on the back of the strong performance of
all of the its major business lines.
Ysmael noted that they see the
company’s performance in the first quarter of the year to trend for the rest of
the year, adding that they are in more geographic locations in the country
while remaining cautious yet aggressive in terms of launches.
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