Megaworld’s 9-mo Income Up 12.52%; Company to Further Expand Rental Portfolio

Property giant Megaworld, the Philippines’ biggest developer of integrated urban townships and the largest lessor of office spaces, achieved a net income of P8.35-billion during the first nine months of 2015, 12.52% higher than P7.42-billion (net of P11.62-billion non-recurring gain) during the same period last year. Its bullish performance during the three quarters of the year was driven by its aggressive expansion of its integrated urban townships across the country, the company’s pioneering real estate concept in the country that synergizes residential, office, commercial and institutional components of a community.

Megaworld’s consolidated revenues grew 10.85% during the first nine months of 2015 on a year-on-year basis. The growth is an increase from last year’s P30.24-billion to P33.53-billion this year.

The company’s rental arm was the fastest growing business segment during the first nine months of 2015 soaring to a record year-on-year record growth of 24%. The company’s rental income as of the first nine months of the year jumped to P6.44-billion from P5.20-billion of the same period last year. This 24% growth broke Megaworld’s previous best rental income growth of 22% last accounting period.

“While we have been successful in our aggressive expansion of our townships across the country, it is time to further build on our recurring income portfolio. We are currently building more office towers and more malls and commercial spaces in all of our townships. We are certain in reaching our rental income target of P9 billion this year,“ says Francis Canuto, chief finance officer, Megaworld.

Megaworld’s residential sales likewise continued its growth trajectory during the first nine months of the year. Real estate sales grew 11.50% year-on-year from P18.38-billion to P20.49-billion.

Completing its target of five townships to be launched this year, Megaworld recently launched Westside City as its 20th township. The 31-hectare Westside City, which is located at the Entertainment City in Parañaque City near Manila Bay, is envisioned to be the “Broadway of Asia” as it becomes home to the first-ever Grand Opera House in the country. It will also be the second leisure and entertainment township of Megaworld following Newport City with Resorts World having its second casino project here.

The company also launched four other new townships during the first nine months of the year namely, Northill Gateway (53 hectares) and The Upper East (34 hectares) in Negros Occidental; Sta. Barbara Heights (170 hectares) in Iloilo; and a 35.6-hectare vast property beside the Pampanga Provincial Capitol in the City of San Fernando.

“Our 20 townships become a testament of our company’s continuing commitment to help build the country. We will continue to build communities that make living, working and playing more convenient and exciting to Filipinos,” adds Canuto.

The company built the 18-hectare Eastwood City in 1999, the first integrated urban township in the Philippines, which saw the birth and growth of the country’s IT-BPO industry. Some of the country’s first IT-BPO companies such as IBM and Citibank set up their operations in Eastwood City even before the IT-BPO industry flourished in the late 90s.

The success of Eastwood City was then replicated in other townships that Megaworld built and is continuously building: McKinley Hill (50 hectares); Newport City in Pasay City (25 hectares), the home of Resorts World Manila); McKinley West (34.5 hectares), Uptown Bonifacio (15.4 hectares) and Forbes Town Center (5 hectares), all in Fort Bonifacio; The Mactan Newtown in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu (30 hectares); Iloilo Business Park (72 hectares) in Mandurriao, Iloilo City; ArcoVia City along C5, Pasig City (12.4 hectares); Davao Park District in Lanang, Davao City (11 hectares); Southwoods City in the boundaries of Cavite and Laguna (561 hectares); Alabang West in Las Piñas City (62 hectares); Boracay Newcoast in Boracay Island (150 hectares) and Twin Lakes near Tagaytay (1,200 hectares) of Global-Estate Resorts, Inc. (GERI), a subsidiary of Megaworld; and Suntrust Ecotown in Tanza, Cavite (350 hectares) of Suntrust Properties, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Megaworld.