Ayala Land posted P5.56-B profit in Q1

Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) registered robust financial results, with the company earning a net income of P5.56 billion in the first quarter of the year, 18 percent higher than the P4.71 billion it posted in the first three months of 2016. Its sustained income growth is expected to contribute to the achievement of the company’s P40 billion net income target by 2020.

Consolidated revenues reached P31.64 billion, 17 percent higher compared to last year’s P26.97 billion, underpinned by the solid performance of its property development, commercial leas­ing, and services businesses. Meanwhile, property sales take-up likewise increased 10 percent to P27.3 billion, driven by the grow­ing demand for residential and office for sale products.

“Our core businesses delivered strong results in the first quar­ter of 2017,” said Bernard Vincent O. Dy, ALI President and CEO. “Property sales have been encouraging and our commercial reve­nues continue to be on an upward trajectory. Given these positive results, we remain committed to launch over P100 billion worth of projects to support our targets for the year.”

ALI will launch three estates this year – the 200-hectare Evo City in Kawit, Cavite, the 25-hectare Azuela Cove in Davao, and the 35-hectare joint venture project with the LT Group within Pasig and Quezon City.

Evo City is envisioned to become a prime central business dis­trict – the first of its kind in Kawit, Cavite. It will feature a balanced mix of high to mid-rise commercial and institutional developments, including Ayala Malls, a hotel, a hospital, and a church, as well as low-rise residential options.

As part of its 2020 vision, ALI will likewise continue to bolster its leasing business, which contributed 38 percent to the compa­ny’s net income in the first quarter of the year.

Ayala Malls lined up six shopping centers this year, including the recently opened Ayala Malls The 30th in Pasig and Ayala Malls Vertis North in Quezon City which will open this June. The company is slated to deliver 185,000 square meters of office spaces this year and these will be located at Ayala Malls The 30th, Circuit Makati, Vertis North, Cebu IT Park, and Bonifacio Global City.

To boost its current hotels and resorts portfolio, ALI opened B&Bs at Lio in Palawan and recently marked the soft opening of Seda Vertis North in Quezon City.

ALI’s total revenues from property development amounted to P19.72 billion, 21 percent higher than the P16.31 billion posted in the same period in 2016, while revenues from commercial leasing amounted to P7.05 billion, 9 percent higher than P6.45 billion last year.

The company spent a total of P21.8 billion for project and capi­tal expenditures in the first three months of 2017. Of the total capital expenditure, 46 percent was spent on the completion of residential projects, 37 percent on commercial leasing projects, 14 percent on land acquisition, new businesses, services and other investments, and 3 percent on the development of its estates. Return on equity stood at 15 percent as of March 31, 2017.

To partially finance capital expenditures, the company closed in March this year, a 10-billion, 10-year bilateral loan with Metropol­itan Bank and Trust Company. On May 2, it subsequently issued and listed on Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corporation, a P7 billion, 10-year fixed-rate retail bond carrying a fixed coupon rate of 5.2624 percent. The bond represents the fourth tranche of the Fixed Rate Retail Bond series of the company’s P50 billion Debt Securities Program registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission in March 2016.