Megaworld bullish on income growth
Property developer Megaworld Corp. expects to post a double-digit growth in net income in 2012 given the strong residential condominium sales and the continued expansion of its retail and commercial rental revenues.
Megaworld president Kingson Sian said that in the first six months alone, the company would have launched more projects than it did in the whole of last year.
“Net income may vary from quarter to quarter, but the overall direction is that definitely, we will post double-digit growth,” Sian told reporters at the sidelines of the company’s shareholders’ meeting yesterday.
Megaworld’s first-quarter net income reached P1.58 billion, up 27 percent year-on-year.
Megaworld’s performance was backed by strong sales from its residential projects in Newport City, McKinley West, McKinley Hill and Eastwood City as well as strong leasing income from its BPO and retail portfolio.
Sian said the company was unfazed by debt problems in Europe, which some analysts expect to affect revenue flows from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). Remittances are seen as a strong driver of domestic spending and real estate sales.
“For the past five years, we have grown by double digits every year, crisis or not. I wouldn’t say that our business model is crisis proof, but I think this shows that we are resilient,” Sian said.
He said Megaworld’s unique proposition was that it develops “communities,” not just stand-alone residential towers. One such community is Eastwood City in Libis, Quezon City. Other such projects included McKinley Hill in Taguig City and Newport City in Pasay. “That’s a major differentiation for us,” Sian said.
He said the company would end the first half of the year with at least 11 new residential projects launched. This would be higher than the total of eight projects started in 2011.
This would help drive up reservation sales to as high as P35 billion for the year.
Apart from residential sales, Sian said Megaworld would also benefit from the growth in its rental revenues, boosted mainly by the opening of the new Lucky China Town mall in Manila.
From P3.8 billion in 2011, he said rental revenues would likely grow to P5 billion by year’s end. Paolo G. Montecillo
