Popi set to diversify

POPI president Rowena Tomeldan

Ayala-led Prime Orion Properties Inc. (Popi) has unveiled plans to scale up its logistics and industrial estate footprint and possibly diversify into the cold storage business to complete its portfolio.

Popi president Rowena Tomeldan told reporters after the company’s annual stockholders meeting yesterday that Popi planned to add two more industrial hubs in its portfolio by the first semester of 2019.

In June, Popi is set to launch a new industrial estate in Lagundingan at the Cagayan de Oro-Misamis Oriental border. It is also acquiring a property in Central Luzon for another hub.

She said Popi was also considering going into cold storage to complete offerings in its portfolio of logistics and industrial estate.

Patrick Avila, general manager of Laguna Technopark Inc. and head of the group’s industrial estate business, said the industrial park in Laguindingan would offer 60 to 100 hectares of industrial space by June.

“If you look at the Cagayan de Oro area, you have various seaports and airports and it’s primed for logistics. The market is pretty fragmented so we’re going there to put some structures, to provide new opportunities,” Avila said.

For the first phase of the Laguindingan estate, Popi expects to offer 42 lots with an average size of 7,000 square meters.

Popi also intends to retain a bigger inventory of industrial space in the industrial parks that it will develop, instead of selling space to locators. This is seen to balance real estate sales and recurring earnings.

ALI has long been planning to enter Mindanao’s industrial estate business, using its land in a 526-hectare estate in Laguindingan.

Avila said this would be the first privately-owned industrial estate in this area.

The upcoming industrial estate will be the first mover in ALI’s Laguindingan estate but there will also be residential and office components in the future, Tomeldan said.

“The location is very strategic. You can walk to the airport. Location is suitable for logistics,” she said.

Parent company Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) is transforming POPI into its logistics and industrial estate arm with a P3-billion share-swap deal that will infuse Laguna Technopark Inc. into this subsidiary. ALI has agreed to exchange its 75 percent stake in LTI into additional shares in POPI, owner and developer of Tutuban Center, a popular shopping center in Divisoria. This transaction will boost ALI’s direct ownership in POPI to 63.90 percent from 54.91 percent.

With the infusion of LTI into POPI, industrial estate development will become the company’s bigger cash cow than Tutuban Center. Laguna Technopark generates about P1 billion in revenues and P300-P400 million in net profit annually.

A prime developer of industrial parks, Laguna Technopark owns and manages the 460-hectare Laguna Technopark which spans portions of the cities of Santa Rosa and Binan in the province of Laguna. It also owns and operates the 118-hectare Cavite Technopark in the municipality of Naic. It also manages the new industrial estate put up by Ayala Land in the Alvierra estate in Pampanga.