Vista Land nets P4.5B

Manny Villar. FILE PHOTO

Villar group-led property developer Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc. booked a 15 percent year-on-year growth in first semester net profit to P4.5 billion as it unlocked higher revenues from residential development and leasing portfolio.

Consolidated revenues for the period amounted to P18.2 billion, up by 16 percent from the previous year’s level, VLL said in a regulatory filing on Monday.

Revenues from real estate increased by 14 percent year-on-year to P14.4 billion for the first six months, improving from the low single-digit growth registered by VLL in the previous year.

Recurring revenues likewise expanded by 37 percent year-on-year to P2.9 billion.

“We are pleased with our first half results and we are very optimistic that we will achieve another record year,” Vista Land chair and founder Manuel Villar Jr. said in a press statement.

“Vista Land continues to deliver solid performance, fuelled by the substantial contribution from our commercial assets coupled with the regained momentum of our core housing business,” he added.

As an indicator of future revenue growth, VLL also reported sustained sales take-up.

“Our reservations sales sustained the 12 percent growth registered during the first quarter of the year to end the semester at P32.3 billion,” Villar said.

“We remain bullish for the industry, given the strong demand for our housing products as well as our commercial space propelled by the stable growth in the disposable income, OF (overseas Filipino ) remittances, sound Philippine macroeconomic fundamentals and the government’s drive to accelerate economic activities and infrastructure developments outside Metro Manila, where we have a competitive advantage given that we have the widest geographic reach around the country,” he added.

The company ended the semester with total consolidated assets of P190.7 billion. Capital expenditures for the first half amounted to P16.4 billion.

“We remain confident about the company’s prospects for the rest of the year as we see a resurgence in our residential business and the continued expansion of our rental spaces,” said Manuel Paolo Villar, Vista Land president and chief executive officer.

VLL launched projects with an estimated value of P28.3 billion during the first semester of the year,
exceeding the new inventory launched for the whole of last year amounting to P26.2 billion.

“We also continued with our strategy of opening in new areas aggressively. We are now present in 125 cities and municipalities and we closer to our target of having a presence in 200 cities and municipalities in the near future,” the younger Villar explained.

“As for the leasing side of our business, we ended the period with a gross floor area of over 950 thousand square meters of investment properties, resulting in 28 percent of our EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) now coming from our recurring leasing business and this will continue to grow as we continue the expansion of our investment properties,” he added.

Recently, VLL tapped the domestic retail bond market with its P5-billion retail bond offering due 2024 and 2027.

“Over the last few years we made significant strides towards improving the company’s credit profile. We have lowered the cost of our borrowing and extended the maturities of our debt instruments. This is the first 10-year peso retail bond issued by the company,” Villar added.

Proceeds of the bonds will be used for construction of commercial assets and for general corporate purposes.

Vista Land intends to focus on the development of “communicities,” defined as integrated urban developments combining lifestyle retail, prime office space, university town, healthcare, themed residential developments and leisure components.