Property giant Ayala Land Inc. grew its net profit last year by 16 percent to P29.2 billion, another record high for the company, as property development and leasing revenues expanded at a double-digit pace.
For the fourth quarter alone, Ayala Land’s net profit grew by 13 percent year-on-year to P8.4 billion on the back of a 7-percent growth in revenue to P46.5 billion.
Consolidated revenue for the whole year climbed by 17 percent to P166.2 billion, driven by sustained demand for residential products and the robust performance of its leasing businesses, ALI disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday.
Property development revenue rose by 18 percent to P113.4 billion owing to strong sales across its residential, office for sale and commercial lot units.
Leasing revenue grew by 17 percent to P34.9 billion on the back of robust local consumption, the increasing demand in business process outsourcing offices and a thriving tourism sector.
“As we celebrated our 30th year in 2018, we remained focused on developing more sustainable communities that enrich the lives of Filipinos. We introduced two new estates to bring our total to 26, registered the highest level of residential sales in our history, and stayed on track to open more commercial developments. These led to strong financial results and positioned our company for continued growth,” Ayala Land president and CEO Bernard Vincent Dy said in a statement.
Ayala Land launched P139.4 billion worth of residential and office for sale projects in 2018. Reservation sales—an indicator of how much revenue could grow in the coming years—reached P141.9 billion last year, 16 percent higher than year-ago level. The company cited strong demand from local and overseas Filipinos, which accounted for 82 percent of total sales. Net booked sales grew by 14 percent to P110.8 billion for the year.
In 2018, ALI added two new developments to its portfolio of mixed-use estates—Park Links, a 35-hectare urban estate along the C5 corridor and a joint venture with Eton Properties, and Habini Bay, a 526-ha estate in Laguindingan, Misamis Oriental, a joint development project with parent Ayala Corp.
Revenue from the sale of residential lots and units rose by 18 percent to P94.6 billion in 2018. Revenue from the sale of office spaces reached P11 billion, up 16 percent, driven by bookings from One Vertis Plaza at Vertis North, Quezon City and The Stiles East Enterprise Plaza in Circuit Makati.
Revenue from the sale of commercial and industrial lots reached P7.7 billion, up 10 percent, mostly from the sale of commercial lots in estates in Visayas and Mindanao and Evo City, as well as industrial lots in Alviera, Pampanga and Cavite Technopark.
The company opened three new malls in 2018—Circuit Mall in Makati, Capitol Central Mall in Bacolod and One Bonifacio High Street in Taguig.
ALI likewise completed new offices in 2018—Bacolod Capitol Corporate Center, Vertis North Corporate Center 3 and Ayala North Exchange. With these new offices, leasing revenue of this segment rose by 29 percent to P8.6 billion.
On the hospitality business, the group’s portfolio of hotel and resorts ended with 2,973 rooms at end-2018. A total of 390 rooms were added across its portfolio of Seda hotels, and bed-and-breakfast rooms in Lio and Sicogon ecotourism estates. Revenue from the business unit reached P6.4 billion, up 14 percent than in 2017.
ALI spent a record P110.1 billion during the year, of which 41 percent was spent on residential projects, 23 percent on commercial projects, 15 percent on land acquisition, 12 percent on the development of estates and 9 percent on investments. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA