Posted on April 04, 2014 07:10:20 PM [ BusinessWorld Online ]
MEGAWORLD CORP. will spend about P5
billion to build 10 office towers in 72-hectare Iloilo Business Park by 2021,
the property developer said in a statement attached to a disclosure on Friday.
"The office towers will provide a total of about 100,000 square
meters (sa.m.) of office space inventory…," the press release read.
"Iloilo Business Park is
positioned to be Western Visayas’ biggest cyberpark and a major hub for IT-BPO
outside of Metro Manila," it added, quoting Jericho P. Go, the company’s
first vice-president.
"More and more BPO companies have
already expressed strong interest to set up operations in Iloilo Business Park.
Most of them are first-time locators."
Three office towers are set to be
operational within this year, namely: One Global Center, Two Global Center, and
the Richmonde Tower.
Colorado-based StarTek, Inc. -- one of
the leading BPOs in the country with call centers located throughout the US,
Latin America, Canada, Honduras, and Costa Rica -- will be the first company to
set up operations in Two Global Center tower by August, Megaworld said. The
four-storey tower has a total of 9,000 sq.m. of office space that could
accommodate around 2,600 workers. "With StarTek coming in to jump-start
our cyberpark operations, we see Iloilo City rising fast to become a major BPO
hub in the region," Mr. Go said.
Megaworld currently has 27 corporate
office towers across the country: 11 in Eastwood City in Quezon City, 14 in
McKinley Hill in Taguig City, as well as one each in Newport City in Pasay City
and in The Mactan Newtown in Lapu Lapu City, Cebu.
Ten more office towers are expected to
be completed this year in McKinley Hill, Uptown Bonifacio in Taguig City, The
Mactan Newtown and Iloilo Business Park.
Megaworld had earlier announced that
it expects to end this year with 712,000 sq.m. of office space.
Megaworld’s net income rose 15% to
P6.55 billion in the nine months ending September 2013 from P5.70 billion in
the same period in 2012, as total revenues jumped 12% to P26.68 billion from
P23.85 billion, with reservation sales growing by a fifth to P56 billion from
P46.5 billion.
Its shares shed four centavos or 0.90%
to close P4.41 apiece on Friday from P4.45 each on Thursday.
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