The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Riza Lozada
Property developer Cebu Landmasters Inc. (CLI) targets to double its land assets following the success of its initial public offering (IPO), which allowed the property developer to raise P2.9 billion.
“The purpose of the IPO is to finalize the acquisition of more land banks,” CLI President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jose Soberano III said.
The company, which debuted at the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Friday, plans to double its about 60 hectares of land assets as it expands its business.
CLI currently has 24 existing projects and Soberano said three or four of them have been launched this year.
Soberano said 80 percent of the company’s projects were residential while the remainder was mixed-use.
He said that the firm was considering to increase the share of high-end properties on its portfolio but stressed that mid-market and economic type of projects would remain the primary focus because “that, to us, remains to be our strength.”
The bid to put up more mix-use projects is targeted to increase the company’s recurring income from the current five percent to 20 percent in the next five years, he said.
He said their diversification program would open more opportunities that they wanted to take-advantage off.
“With that kind of opportunity that you gonna take you can see a variation now from what’s predominantly just focused on residential,” he said.
Soberano discounted any plan to put up projects in Luzon, citing that Visayas and Mindanao areas are where their strength is.
“We are strong in those areas and we feel that we can manage it a lot better. We know the market much better there. I think we can maintain a good margin because we know the market there,” he added.
Jose Franco Soberano, CLI Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer (COO), said the company will continue to focus on their mid-market and economic-focused projects given the lack of supply for these segments.
He said price of houses in these segments amount between P800,000 to P1.2 million and with a monthly amortization of between P4,000 to P6,000, which is affordable to people who belong to the middle income class.
He sees sustained demand for these segments because of the backlog, particularly in the Visayas and Mindanao regions.
CLI have presence in seven areas in the Visayas and Mindanao namely in Bacolod, Dumaguete, Iloilo, Cebu, Bohol, Cagayan de Oro and Davao.
