Empire East Land Holdings Inc., the middle-income subsidiary of tycoon Andrew Tan’s Megaworld Corp., is embarking on a fresh P25-billion spending plan over the next five years as it expects demand for its residential products to remain strong.
The spending will fund a steady pipeline of new residential projects, including its next flagship undertaking, the 24-hectare Empire East Highland City along Felix Avenue at the boundary of Pasig City and Cainta, Rizal.
Empire East president and CEO Anthony Charlemagne Yu told reporters on the sidelines of the company’s annual meeting on Tuesday that the builder expects to spend P10 billion over 10 years to develop Empire East Highland City, which is being positioned as an upscale “uphill community.”
Once finished, the project will have 38 residential towers, wide roads and parks anchored by a shopping mall to be built by Megaworld, he said.
“The market is very strong and it’s very strong across all segments,” Yu said.
According to the company, the first 3,000 residential condominium units in Empire East Highland City would be rolled out this year.
Empire East, which weathered crippling financial crises by introducing new payment schemes and adjusting to emerging market preferences, turns 25 years old this year.
Yu noted that for 2019, the company was hoping to grow earnings by 12-20 percent. He said Empire East also hoped to sustain growth in reservation sales, which almost reached P25 billion in 2018.
Since it was established in 1994, Empire East built more than 17,000 condominium units across 110 towers and developed 7,700 horizontal lots. Yu said the builder controlled a land bank of over 400 ha, which he said would keep the company busy for five to seven years.
During the first quarter of 2019, Empire East saw net profit hit P210.73 million, up 4.7 percent year-on-year. Total revenues hit P1.28 billion, up 4 percent. Most of this came from real estate sales, which reached P1.11 billion from January to March this year from P1.06 billion last year.