Cebu Holdings on the lookout for new ventures
CEBU CITY—Ayala-led Cebu Holdings, Inc. (CHI) intends to continue on its high growth path until 2020, by further diversifying its existing business estates while pursuing expansion plans and looking out for new properties and ventures.
In a recent report to stockholders, CHI president Aniceto V. Bisnar Jr. said the company ended 2015 with a 56-percent increase in net income to P827 million, resulting in a compound annual growth rate of 16 percent in the last five years.
Its subsidiary Cebu Property Ventures and Development Corp. (CPVDC) posted an all-time high net income of P497 million and a five-year compound annual growth rate of 27 percent.
For the next five years, Bisnar said the company had earmarked more than P13 billion for identified projects in Metro Cebu and committed to follow an investment plan aligned with the growth targets of parent firm Ayala Land Inc.
The amount includes P5.8 billion that has been set aside for capital expenditures this year, more than double the P2.7 billion spent last year.
The bulk will go into the development of more retail and office spaces to “increase [our] recurring income portfolio to enable the company to withstand changing market conditions.”
“This does not include yet the future projects that we may come into within that five-year period,” Bisnar told reporters after the stockholders’ meeting.
The company is always on the lookout for new properties and possible ventures, including those in partnership with other companies, added CHI chief finance officer Enrique B. Manuel Jr.
Bisnar said the Philippine economy was also seen to continue its high-growth trajectory.
But he said it was important that whoever wins in the May 9 presidential elections would “continue supporting development of the country, especially in the countryside.”
“We plan to continue our investments in regional development to help achieve inclusive growth,” he said.
Expansion plans include three new mixed-use developments within Metro Cebu as well as more residential units and new retail and office spaces to boost leasing income.
CHI will launch this year a 17-hectare city center project in partnership with subsidiary CPVDC and AboitizLand, Inc.
The company is also completing the masterplan for a 13-hectare property on Mactan Island, which is envisioned to be a resort development that will further boost Cebu’s tourism industry.
This would be undertaken in partnership with the Gaisano-owned Taft Property Ventures and Development Corp.
Bisnar said CHI ws also completing, together with parent Ayala Land, Inc. as well as SM Prime Holdings, Inc., the masterplan for a 26-hectare lot at the South Road Properties (SRP) in southern Cebu City that they won in a bidding in June last year.
Bisnar, who is also CPVDC president, said the Mandaue project was a major milestone for CPVDC as it was the company’s first venture outside Cebu City.
“More than ever, the time is ripe for us to recalibrate our strategies for greater growth, increase our portfolio, and realize much higher values from our initial investments,” Bisnar said
during the separate CPVDC stockholders’ meeting.
The Mandaue project is envisioned to host another regional mall and residential condominium units, among others.
At the SRP, three of the 26 hectares will be set aside for an arena that will be constructed by SM. The balance of 23 hectares will be split evenly between SM and the Ayala-CHI Group.
“This is our first venture in the southern part of Cebu City, as we strive to expand urban development to new areas in the province. We are currently in the stage of jointly masterplanning this development,” Bisnar told stockholders.
Chief finance officer Manuel later told reporters that about P1 billion had been set aside for the land development of the property from 2016 to 2018, with CHI and Ayala Land each allotting P500 million.
Meanwhile, CHI will continue the buildup at Cebu Business Park, a 50-hectare former golf course that CHI transformed into Cebu’s financial and business district, and Cebu IT Park, a 27-hectare cyberpark developed by CPVDC.
It now hosts about 70 percent of Cebu’s information technology-business process outsourcing (IT-BPO) locators.
CHI ended 2015 with an all-time-high revenue of P3.7 billion, 63 percent higher than in 2014, while CPVDC more than doubled its revenues to P1.3 billion. Revenues were largely derived from commercial lot and residential condominium sales as well as retail and office leasing income.
