Vista Land 9-month profit up 12% to P4.2B

SCREENGRAB from www.vistaland.com.ph

MANILA, Philippines–Villar-led property developer Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc. grew its nine-month net profit by 12 percent year on year to P4.2 billion, backed by a double-digit expansion in revenues from core housing products.

With the nine-month results, VLL is seen on track to hit its goal of sustaining double-digit growth in sales, revenues and net profit for the full year, officials said in a briefing yesterday. For the first nine months, VLL’s real estate revenues grew by 13 percent year on year to P16.7 billion.

As an indicator of future revenue growth, nine-month sales reservation rose 9 percent year on year to P38.7 billion, of which P12.8 billion was generated in the third quarter alone. About 17,000 housing units were taken up by the market at a price of P2.2 million a unit. For the third quarter alone, sales reservation was up 7.5 percent year on year.

“I am very confident that we will meet our guidance numbers for sales, revenues and earnings this year,” said Manuel Paolo Villar, VLL president and chief executive. “I am pleased to report that the strategies in the housing market that we have adopted will allow us to meet our full year targets.”

He said the fourth quarter would likely remain robust but momentum could even be stronger in the first half of next year. “We’ve been running down our less prime inventory and looking for increased momentum in the first half (of 2015). We deliberately delayed certain projects in anticipation of commercial developments, such as in Vista City in Daang Hari.”

Gross margin for the nine-month period stood at 50.6 percent versus 51.2 percent year-on-year. Villar said this was in line with the company’s target to maintain a margin of at least 50 percent.

“We are averaging almost P13 billion in sales every quarter and we should be able to hit a record P51 billion in sales for 2014,” said VLL chair Manuel Villar Jr.

“Most of our sales have been coming from our core product, which is housing, both in Metro Manila and in the provincial areas. We fully expect to see continued strong sales performance in the coming years as demand for house and lots, particularly in the mid- to low-end segments of the market, continues to be robust. We launched 16 subdivisions projects outside Metro Manila such as in Cebu, Batangas, Iloilo, Quezon and Isabela to name a few,” the elder Villar added.

“I have been and continue to be optimistic about the outlook for the housing sector. I am confident that Vista Land will continue to be a dominant force in the housing market,” the company president said. “As you all know by now, we are the leader by far in the house-and-lot segment and have a strong competitive advantage given our track record of delivering quality housing units for more than 30 years across the country,” the elder Villar added.