Megaworld leisure estate unit posts 3% profit growth

Tourism and leisure estate developer Global-Estate Resorts Inc. (Geri) grew its net profit last year by 3 percent to P1.5 billion on higher revenues from real estate sales and leasing portfolio.

Including earnings attributable to minority, the Megaworld Corp. subsidiary saw its net profit rise by 14 percent to a record P1.7 billion in 2018.

Geri’s performance last year was underpinned by real estate sales, which grew by 21 percent to P6.4 billion.

It brought more residential units to the property market last year, particularly in Twin Lakes and Boracay Newcoast.

Last year, Geri also launched a new project in Pasig called The Fifth, a two-tower condominium development expected to generate P8 billion in sales.

“At the heart of Geri’s continuous growth since being consolidated under the Megaworld group is its expansive land bank, which the company has utilized to develop townships and integrated lifestyle communities that are centered on tourism and leisure. To date, we still have more land to develop, allowing us to explore new opportunities in tourism developments,” Geri president Monica Salomon said in a statement.

Revenue from the company’s rental business surged by 165 percent to P427 million last year. For the first time, Geri was able to book full-year revenue from its biggest mall to date, Southwoods Mall, which is in its 561-hectare Southwoods City township in Biñan, Laguna. It also opened its first two office towers in Southwoods City last year.

Geri has four other tourism estates and two integrated lifestyle communities across the country covering more than 3,000 hectares of land. These include Boracay Newcoast in Boracay Island, Aklan, and Twin Lakes in Batangas. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA