Megaworld’s Q1 profit up 30%

Megaworld Corp., the property arm of billionaire Andrew Tan, saw profits soar by 30 percent in the first quarter of the year on strong real estate sales revenues and workplace activity as pandemic restrictions were relaxed.

In a statement on Monday, the builder said this brought net income from January to March to P3.1 billion compared with P2.4 billion in the same period last year.

Revenues during the period were up 29 percent to P13.1 billion as real estate sales, office rentals, malls and hotels booked double-digit earnings growth during the quarter.

“This is definitely a strong start for us and affirms that our improved performance can be sustained,” Megaworld chief strategy officer Kevin Tan said in the statement.

The largest contributor was the builder’s real estate business, which surged 36 percent to P8.1 billion on higher revenues recognized from the ongoing construction of projects.

Malls, hotels regain momentum

Future revenue indicators remained robust via the 12-percent expansion of reservation sales to P23.2 billion.

“We are now focused on returning to our prepandemic performance and to grow beyond that,” Tan noted in the statement.

Megaworld’s office segment income rose 16 percent to P3 billion while shopping malls hit over P717 million, up 40 percent.

This was attributed to “improving foot traffic and the increase in retail locators that have restarted their operations.”

Megaworld’s hotels and resorts segment likewise grew 50 percent to nearly P503 million with the further reopening of the economy during the first quarter.

“While there was some concern last January due to the Omicron variant, consumer confidence remained on the uptrend and our quick recovery showed that we are now in a better position to manage the pandemic and move forward,” Tan said.

—Miguel R. Camus INQ