MANILA, Philippines—Property tycoon Andrew Tan’s flagship Megaworld Corp. will launch five new residential property projects in the second half of this year that are expected to yield P12 billion in sales revenues in the years ahead.

Capital spending, mostly for residential projects, is budgeted at P8-P10 billion this year or roughly at about the same level spent last year, Megaworld executive director Kingson Sian said in a briefing after the company’s stockholders’ meeting Friday.

Net profit for the full year are seen hitting about P4 billion, up from P3.8 billion, even as Megaworld did not expect to replicate the record-high reservation sales of P24 billion in 2008, which was a banner year for the company. But he said the company was doing better than the level in 2007, which was likewise a good year for the company when it recorded P18-P19 billion in reservation sales.

Sian announced during the stockholders’ meeting that the five new residential products to be launched by Megaworld later this year are Two Central, a high-rise development in Salcedo Village in the Makati central business district; Le Grand Tower 3 in Eastwood (Quezon City); Palm Tree, a villa-type residential development in Newport City across the Manila International Airport Terminal 3 in Pasay; phase 2 of Venice Luxury Residence in Mckinley Hill and Morgan Suites Executive Residences phase 3 also in McKinley Hill.

“When there’s a crisis, people are nervous so they hold back a little bit, but in general we’re happy with the results,” Sian said. “This year, amid the challenges of the global recession, we continue to be confident on our residential products.”

Reservation sales refer to payments received for property sale contracts which have yet to hit 25 percent of total unit price and thus could not be recognized yet as revenues, Sian explained.

Real estate sales booked by Megaworld in 2008 amounted to P12.4 billion, higher than P10.6 billion a year ago.

Sian said Megaworld remained quite optimistic even on office building development even as other people were concerned about oversupply. “You have to distinguish what kinds of office buildings there are. Ours are within (residential) communities, so they are more attractive to locators and employees,” Sian said.

Despite tough economic conditions, he said cancelation rate was at a “low” single-digit figure as the company remained vigilant on the quality of its receivables. He added that the global slump has not dampened sales too much because direct overseas sales accounted for only 8-9 percent of the total. “These are sales to overseas Filipinos and most of those are from Middle East and Asia. As a percentage of total sales, the US is not big,” he said.

Asked why Megaworld was expecting higher net profit this year despite slower reservation sales, Sian said the company could start recognizing more income from units previously sold, thereby driving profit growth. About 80 percent of Megaworld’s revenues come from residential sales and the remainder from rental income.