Manny Villar. FILE PHOTO
Villar group-led property developer Vista Land & Lifescapes (VLL) grew its first quarter net profit by 11 percent year-on-year to P2.3 billion as revenues from residential development and leasing expanded at a double-digit pace.
Consolidated revenues for the quarter ended at P9 billion, up by 14 percent from the level in the same period last year, VLL said in a regulatory filing.
The group booked revenues from real estate sales amounting to P7.12 billion for the three-month period, an increase of 10 percent year-on-year. This was due to the increase in the overall completion rate of sold inventories of its business units, particularly Vista Residences, Crown Asia and Camella Homes.
VLL uses the percentage of completion method of revenue recognition where revenue is recognized in reference to the stages of development of the properties.
Leasing revenue for the quarter also significantly increased by 50 percent to P1.44 billion. The company also added about 70,000 square meters of gross floor area in its investment properties from expansion of existing malls.
Vista Land chair Manuel Villar Jr. said: “2017 promises to be another record year for Vista Land. We are pleased to have been able to achieve solid growth over the past years and should have no problem continuing the trend this year.”
“Our positive outlook for the year is due to the continued expansion of our commercial assets in addition to our core housing business on the back of sound Philippine macroeconomic fundamentals. We are also seeing improvement in our reservation sales growth as we registered a 12 percent growth from a year ago,” he added.
Vista also launched new projects valued at about P12 billion in the first quarter of 2017.
VLL president and chief executive officer Manuel Paolo Villar said: “We have seen a continued significant growth in our leasing business as we continue to roll out our expansion programs to achieve our stated target of 1.3 million square meters in GFA by the end of 2018. As a result, our leasing business now accounts for 28 percent of EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) and 22 of net income and we expect this to increase towards the end of the year.”
Capital expenditures for 2017 are expected to reach P35.3 billion.
“I remain confident about the prospects for our company,” the younger Villar said. ” In addition to the expansion of our rental spaces, which provides stability to our existing core and stable end-user housing business, we will continue to open in new areas across the Philippines as we embark on our next 100 new cities and municipalities in addition to what where we had at end of 2016.”
VLL is present in 107 cities and municipalities across 44 provinces in the country as of end-March. The company intends to focus on the development of “communicities,” referring to integrated urban developments combining lifestyle retail, prime office space, university town, healthcare, themed residential developments and leisure components.
The company’s total consolidated assets as of end-March amounted to P180.6 billion compared to P174.8 billion in December of last year.