Century Properties’ P3-B bond sale gets strong credit score

Century Properties Group Inc., the Antonio family-led real estate firm that developed the Trump Tower Philippines, received a strong credit rating for its planned P3-billion bond sale.

Credit Rating and Investors Services Philippines Inc. issued the bonds a score of AA+, indicating a low chance of default.

The debt watcher cited the builder’s resilient financials and its shift to affordable housing, which it described as “strategically beneficial”.

“[Century Properties’] entry into the horizontal affordable housing development market in 2017 provided opportunities for the company to capture a share in a traditionally reliable property market segment,” the ratings firm said.

“Within a relatively brief period, [Century Properties’] joint venture brand with Mitsubishi Corp., PHirst Park Homes, has launched 16 home communities on 293 hectares of land with over 19,800 units valued at P34.4 billion in eight provinces in the country’s main island of Luzon,” it added.

The developer earlier said the bonds will be issued in several tranches that will mature in 2026, 2028 and 2030, respectively. It is raising cash ahead of the July 10, 2023 redemption date of a P3-billion preferred share issuance.

Century Properties also operates rental assets with aggregate gross leasable area of 146,670 square meters.

These include the Century City Mall, Centuria Medical Makati, Asian Century Center, Century Diamond Tower and the recently opened Novotel Suites, Manila.

Credit Rating and Investors Services said the builder’s diversified portfolio consists of vertical projects (43 percent), affordable housing (42 percent), commercial leasing (11 percent) and property management (4 percent).

From January to September last year, the company’s revenues increased by 35 percent to P8.75 billion from P6.48 billion while net income during the same period reached P1.15 billion, up 6.5 percent.

“[Century Properties] experienced revenue downturns at the height of the pandemic but began to show recoveries,” the credit rating firm said.

Its nine-month performance also showed lower interest- bearing debt of P16.9 billion compared to P18.3 billion as reflected in 2021, showing an improvement in its balance sheet debt load, it added.