Vista Land signs P12-B loan deal

Billionaire Manuel Villar Jr.’s flagship property company Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc. signed a P12-billion loan deal to strengthen its balance sheet and lower borrowing costs.

Vista Land said in a stock exchange filing on Thursday it made an initial drawdown of P8.6 billion at a fixed-rate of 7.9314 percent per year.

Proceeds from the three-year notes facility will be used to “refinance existing or maturing obligations of the Group and for other general corporate purposes”, the filing showed.

Vista Land is moving to preemptively strengthen its business amid potential risks facing the property sector in 2023.

Earlier this month, Sun Life Investment Management and Trust Corp. president Mike Enriquez advised investors to be wary of property stocks given the jump in interest rates.

He said this could affect real estate sales, however, more diversified developers might weather the slowdown.

Vista Land said it tapped BDO Capital & Investment Corp. and China Bank Capital Corp. as lead arrangers and bookrunners with Union Bank of the Philippines joining as joint lead arranger for the debt deal.

China Banking Corp. – Trust and Asset Management Group acted as facility agent while Vista Land subsidiaries Brittany Corp., Crown Asia Properties Inc., Camella Homes Inc., Communities Philippines Inc., Vista Residences Inc., and Vistamalls Inc. were subsidiary guarantors.

Vista Land earlier reported that net income from January to September expanded by 12 percent to P6.7 billion while revenues slipped 5.2 percent to P21.2 billion.

Reservation sales, an indicator of future revenue, climbed 10 percent to P48 billion during the nine-month period.

Vista Land said sales to overseas Filipino workers remained resilient given their increased spending power after the dramatic deprecation of the Philippine peso. The builder said OFWs accounted for 60 percent of sales.

The developer ended the period with total assets of P312.4 billion while capital spending during the period reached P19 billion.

It still controls land reserves spanning over 2,920 hectares for future developments.

Manuel Paolo A. Villar, president & CEO of Vista Land, said earnings growth was supported by the company’s growing leasing portfolio.

“The footfall of our malls has been improving and even exceeded pre pandemic levels during weekends and holidays,” he said in a previous statement.

“We have over 1.6 million square meters of gross floor area of commercial developments consisting of 45 malls, 56 commercial centers and seven office buildings. The funding for the expansion program of our investment properties is in place with our foray to the REIT through VistaREIT last June 2022,” he added.