MANILA, Philippines — Property giant Megaworld Corp. plans to spend P55 billion this year to support an aggressive expansion plan meant to further increase its leasing footprint by half to 3 million square meters (sq m) by the end of the decade.
“The budget will be used to develop our existing and upcoming townships, residential projects, investment properties, as well as land acquisition,” Kevin Tan, chief strategy officer of Megaworld, said during the firm’s annual stockholders meeting on Monday.
According to Tan, this is part of their P350-billion five-year capital expenditure (capex) program that was launched in 2023.
This is likewise in line with Megaworld’s plan to expand its leasing portfolio for offices and lifestyle malls to 3 million sq m by the end of the decade.
Tan said this was equivalent to a 52-percent growth from its portfolio size of around 2 million sq m as of last year.
This includes 1.5 million sq m of office space and 500,000 sq m of lifestyle mall space.
New projects
Upcoming Megaworld Premier Office projects in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Pampanga, Cavite, and Bacolod will help them reach their target of 2 million sq m of office for the segment.
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Likewise, new projects in Cavite, Rizal, Pampanga, Bulacan, Bacolod, Cebu, Davao, Boracay, and Palawan under Megaworld Lifestyle Malls will help them reach their goal of racking up 1 million sq m of mall space.
By the end of the year, Megaworld aims to complete around 180,000 sq m of offices and 100,000 sq m of mall and commercial retail spaces.
As of December last year, the company led by billionaire Andrew Tan had 1.5 million sq m of gross leasable area for offices, while shopping malls accounted for 517,000 sq m.
Megaworld in 2023 launched four new retail locations in various Megaworld townships, including Landers Superstore within Upper East in Bacolod City.
READ: Megaworld earnings up 8% on robust sales
It also added 69,000 sq m of leasing space in its office portfolio after the turnover of the International Finance Center, its seventh office development in Uptown Bonifacio, Taguig City.
Megaworld recorded an 8-percent jump in first-quarter earnings to P4.4 billion on strong demand in its residential, mall and hotel projects.
Revenues climbed by 16 percent to nearly P19 billion as its core businesses saw growth. INQ