Mass housing champ Atencio marks return via buddy’s IPO-bound business

Mass housing veteran Januario Jesus Atencio has inked a deal to acquire up to 20 percent of Olivares family-led Ovialand Inc. (OLI), a fast-growing affordable subdivision developer that aspires to become a publicly listed company with presence nationwide.

At a press briefing Thursday, Atencio said his holding firm Januarius Holdings Inc. had come in as a strategic investor in OLI with an initial 13-percent stake and an option to raise interest to 20 percent over a three-year period.

This partnership with the Olivares family, which has been in the real estate business for over three decades, marks Atencio’s return to the mass housing business three years after bowing out as long-time chief executive officer of 8990 Holdings.

Atencio will not take any executive post in OLI. However, he will occupy one of five board seats and is expected to be involved in strategic planning and mentoring.

With Atencio onboard, debuting on the Philippine Stock Exchange was “something we can seriously consider,” said Marie Leonore Fatima Olivares-Vital, OLI president and chief executive.

Atencio believes OLI has sufficient scale and proof of concept to tap the stock market, which may happen at any time after the COVID-19 pandemic.

To date, OLI produces 500 to 600 housing units a year at a price range of P2.2 million to P2.8 million. Next year, it is expected to produce 1,000 units and further scale up to 4,000 units a year in five years, according to Vital.

The goal is to scale up production to 8,000 to 10,000 housing units a year by 2030.

“The vision is within 10 years, Ovialand is going to [become a] nationwide player in real estate development with presence in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. We are expecting to open the first regional development in [the] Visayas in 2024-2025 [during] which we intend to start our township communities as well,” Vital said.

“We are also intending to venture into four-story midrise (residential) buildings in more congested areas of Metro Manila,” she added.

Established five years ago, OLI uses precast technology to build housing units. Its developments are, for now, mostly in southern Luzon. It is able to deliver houses within three to six months from purchase. About 98 percent of its buyers are financed by the state-owned Pag-Ibig Fund.

OLI expects to generate P4 billion in revenues between 2020 and 2023 from its current land bank of 32 hectares.

Giovanni Olivares, chair of OLI and father of Vital, said he and Atencio have worked together as private sector representatives at the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council from 2010 to 2015, during which both of them championed the low-cost housing industry.

Vital said her father encouraged her to grow and learn more to bring the business to greater heights.

About 30 percent of OLI’s business comes from overseas Filipino workers.