Property giant Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) saw an improvement in third quarter earnings relative to the bleak second quarter—during which the toughest and longest lockdown protocols had been in place—but the prolonged coronavirus pandemic continued to gnaw on most businesses.
ALI posted a third-quarter net profit of P1.85 billion, down by 77 percent year-on-year. However, this marked a nine-fold improvement compared to the second quarter profit of only P197 million.
For the nine-month period, ALI’s profit amounted to P6.4 billion, down 73 percent from last year.
“COVID-19 continues to significantly affect our operations and the performance of our company. However, we’ve seen improvement in the majority of our business lines in the third quarter as pandemic-related restrictions gradually eased,” ALI president and CEO Bernard Vincent Dy said.
Revenue in the nine-month period fell by 48 percent year-on-year to P63.3 billion. For the third quarter, revenue was P22.12 billion, down from P38.44 billion a year ago.
January to September revenue from property development was down 52 percent year-on-year to P40.6 billion due to lower project bookings and limited construction activity.
In the third quarter, as construction activities resumed, property development revenue more than doubled to P15.7 billion from P7.6 billion in the second quarter.
Residential sales reservations in the first nine months hit P60.8 billion, or about 56 percent of last year’s levels. In the third quarter, reservation sales grew by 66 percent from the previous quarter as demand for residential products picked up. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA