‘Value for money in every Pueblo de Oro home’

MORE THAN 20 years ago, the investment house which Guillermo Luchangco had built pinned its hopes to bright economic prospects that came on the heels of the revolution that toppled the Marcos administration.

THE PUEBLO Golf & Country Club, an 18-hole championship golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones II, is nestled in the heart of the township.

The opportunity came when the country began to come out of the economic recession in 1987. Despite several hits and misses, Guilly, as friends call Luchangco, was one lucky man to survive all its peaks and valleys. To date, the investment firm has grown into a diversified conglomerate with P9 billion- P10 billion in assets owned and/or managed.

Through its property development arm, Pueblo de Oro Development Corp. (PODC), it has also ventured into a scene where the grass seems to be greener.

With the success of its many projects, PODC can now hold a candle to many big real estate developers in the country. In its portfolio is a stellar list of the most successful industrial and science parks in the country, the renowned World Trade Center and a 360-hectare township project in Cagayan de Oro.

Where did all these achievements come from? Was luck all that was behind this investment banker who spent most of his life running companies?

Reason behind success

The success of PODC is built on its reputation of building quality projects and making sure clients are given “value for their money,” said Guilly, chair of the Investment and Capital Corp. of the Philippines Group which manages PODC, in an exclusive one-on-one with Inquirer Property.

THE PUEBLO Golf & Country Club, an 18-hole championship golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones II, is nestled in the heart of the township.

“We do not try to be as large as other major developers because we want to be able to put distinction in each project. We don’t want to be a copycat or manufacturer of the same project just so we could put up a village.”

The company has the luxury of time, he said, making sure that it doesn’t trip over by sudden and misguided decisions. This helps them in picking and choosing what they think will be “winners.”

At the forefront of its property ventures is a masterfully planned township in the heart of Cagayan de Oro in northern Mindanao called the Pueblo de Oro Township. Literally means “town of gold,” Pueblo de Oro is home to the Pueblo Golf & Country Club, an 18-hole championship golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones II. The township is home to everything—a premier subdivision, an SM City shopping mall, Xavier University and other exclusive residential communities.

Why Cagayan de Oro was picked owes much to the city’s bustling middle-class group than in any other areas or cities in the south. Being a trading center, the city has a large number of middle-income earners who can afford to acquire property, Guilly noted. Another reason is the city’s inherent beauty and the charm of its rolling mountains, rivers, verdant hills and valleys.

PODC is replicating the township’s success in many other property developments across the country. Several housing projects have been built in Cebu, Sto. Tomas, Batangas and recently in San Fernando, Pampanga.

AT 71, Guilly is in no hurry to retire.

The grass is greener in the property scene, said Guilly, with a “substantial portion” of the ICCP group’s income coming from its real estate development arm. Thanks in part to a strong demand for residential developments, he said.

Guilly, as the chair and CEO of PODC is like a father to a baby who saw for himself how his “brainchild” has grown into a formidable player it is known today. But it was not all sunny day for the group, he related.

During the property recession at the time of Asian crisis, the group had learned to restructure its loans because properties weren’t selling very well.

“We’ve always maintained a conservative stance in our financing. I always look at our gearing ratio, how much loans we can take. We could borrow more than what we are actually borrowing but I don’t want our ratio of debt and equity to become too high,” Guilly said.

It was always a calculated risk-taking, he stressed.

As a proud “daddy” to his brainchild, Guilly talked about how he, along with team, manages to keep the Pueblo de Oro brand true to its promise of gold-standard living.

Realization

In the past years, the company was not keen on marketing abroad unlike property firms that regularly send missions to attract potential partners and buyers. Then came a time they realized 50 percent of their sales were coming from overseas Filipinos, professionals and retirees. This segment was a significant market, after all.

Now the group puts more effort into bringing their brand abroad to target the overseas market in the United Kingdom, United States and the Middle East, among others.

“Our success is built on our reputation. We didn’t have the big name of big property developers so we compete by giving quality projects and value for money in every Pueblo de Oro home,” Guilly said. “Once you lose reputation, patay ka na eh (you’re dead/finished.)”

At 71, Guilly is in no hurry to retire. He’s currently on a long-term succession planning by gradually detaching from the group’s day-to-day operations and lessening his loads. “I guide the organization, lend the benefit of my experience and advise on particular issues.”

Looking back, he said, he was proud of how far the company has gone. He revealed that in five years, his target is to double the company’s worth.