Property giant Filinvest Land Inc. (FLI) said profit hit a record last year, with a big boost coming from its office rental business.
FLI said in a stock exchange filing Monday that net income for the full-year 2016 hit P5.35 billion, up 5 percent. The company, led by the Gotianun family, said revenues hit P19.5 billion, up 7 percent.
FLI said the biggest revenue growth came from its leasing business, which hit P3.38 billion, up 15 percent. The company saw an increase in revenues from its office buildings.
FLI said rental income now accounts for 40 percent of its profit.
“We are happy to report that our plan to triple our recurring income portfolio is beginning to bear fruit as the rental business now provides substantial revenues for the company and mitigates the risks of a cyclical residential market,” FLI CEO and President Josephine Gotianun Yap said in the statement.
The builder completed three new buildings in the last quarter of 2015 and these started to generate revenues in 2016. Moreover, the company completed two new buildings, Filinvest Cyberzone Bay City 1 and 2 in the Bay area, with 37,000 square meters (sq m) of gross leasable area (GLA) that have been fully leased out.
FLI now operates 21 office buildings totaling 312,000 sq m of GLA, a 50 percent increase in the last two years.
FLI continued to build up its residential business, saying the the affordable market segment remained undeserved.
FLI said it would invest another P5 billion in the next three years in Mindanao as it expands its Futura Homes economic housing and Spatial Medium-Rise Building (MRB) affordable condominium portfolios.
FLI also launched residential projects in Metro Manila, Cavite, Rizal, Bulacan, Bacolod, Iloilo and other key locations last year. To date, FLI has developed more than 2,500 hectares of land and sold more than 160,000 housing units.
FLI, together with parent company Filinvest Development Corp. (FDC) have signed a lease agreement with Clark Development Corp. (CDC) to develop, manage and operate the 200-hectare Clark Mimosa estate for a term of 50 years, renewable for another 25 years.
The Board of Directors of CDC recently approved Filinvest’s master plan to redevelop the estate into a mixed-use, leisure-based destination.
It also signed a joint venture agreement with the Bases Conversion and Development Authority v for the development of the 288-hectare Phase 1 portion of the landmark Clark Green City portion in Tarlac. —MIGUEL R. CAMUS