Megaworld beats core earnings outlook

Property giant Megaworld Corp. saw its attributable net income flat at P13.5 billion last year due to one-off tax and foreign exchange adjustment but core earnings outperformed market expectations.

“We have exceeded our targets across all business segments last year and we remain optimistic that we can hit or even exceed our prepandemic numbers this year,” Megaworld chief strategy officer Kevin Tan said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Excluding the impact of non-recurring tax adjustment gain and impact of foreign exchange movements, Megaworld’s core income grew 12.1 percent last year to P15.2 billion, exceeding consensus estimates, according to Richard Laneda, equities analyst at COL Financial.

Megaworld has yet to release its financial statement. “Most likely this [flat bottom line] could be due to higher expenses as the company also said that all of their business lines delivered positive growth momentum, exceeding their targets for the year,” Regina Capital Development Corp. head of sales Luis Limlingan said.

Including earnings attributable to minority equity holders of parent firm, the listed company’s consolidated net income grew 7 percent to P15.4 billion last year. Total top line, meanwhile, improved by 17 percent to P59.5 billion for the period.

The Andrew Tan-led firm noted that its residential sales, an indicator of future revenue trajectory, expanded by 18 percent to P36.8 billion while pre-sales climbed by 49 percent to nearly P119 billion, surpassing its P110-billion target.

The township developer has residential projects in Boracay, Palawan, Cebu, Bacolod, Pampanga and Cavite.

Larger portfolio

Last year, it launched townships Winford Resort Estate in Manila and Sherwood Hills in Cavite. The company has 30 townships in its portfolio, sprawling 5,100 hectares of land, as of end-2022.

The office segment contributed P12.2 billion in rental income last year, showing an 11-percent growth from 2021 level on the back of increasing receipts from traditional and business process outsourcing companies.

Revenues from mall business grew by 51 percent to P3.4 billion amid the increasing foot traffic given the further easing of mobility restrictions.

For hotel and resorts business, revenues soared by 35 percent to P2.6 billion last year. It also exceeded the prepandemic top line of P2.5 billion in 2019.

Megaworld said this was mainly driven by the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions activities. Twin Lakes Hotel in Tagaytay was the company’s best performing hotel property last year.

Last year, the listed firm opened Boracay Newcoast Convention Center in Boracay and the Belmont Hotel at The Mactan Newtown in Cebu.

“Certainly, we will be launching more townships this year as we look forward to expanding our offerings to more cities across the Philippines,” Tan said. INQ