AYALA LAND, Inc. (ALI) expects P80 billion in project launches by yearend, the company’s president said on Wednesday.
“The ALI business line continued with its strong performance… We expect to end the year with a total of P80 billion in launches,” Ayala Land President and Chief Executive Officer Anna Ma. Margarita B. Dy said during the company’s nine-month financial and analysts’ briefing.
Of the company’s planned launches for the remainder of the year, approximately 90% are awaiting licenses to sell, she noted, adding that half of these projects are in the company’s core segments.
“Given the unique position of our inventory, almost half of the projects for launch in the coming months are in our core segment, bringing fresh products to the market,” she said.
More than 70% of the company’s planned launches will be horizontal projects.
Only one of the projected project launches is located in Metro Manila, while the rest will be in Laguna and Cavite, Ms. Dy noted.
For the first nine months of the year, Ayala Land reported an attributable net income of P21.16 billion, up by 15.1% from the P18.39 billion recorded in the same period last year.
The company has yet to release its financial statement for the third quarter.
For the first semester, the company logged an attributable net income of P13.13 billion, marking an increase of 15.3% from the P11.39 billion in the same period in 2023.
For January to September of 2024, Ayala Land recorded total revenues of P125.21 billion, surging by 26.6% from the P98.92 billion in the comparable period a year ago.
Revenues from real estate accounted for the bulk of its top line for the period after generating revenue of P122.69 billion, or 97.9% of its gross revenues.
Property development generated P76.6 billion in revenue, driven by strong residential bookings and commercial lot sales. The leasing and hospitality segment earned P33.23 billion, while construction, property management, and ancillary services brought in P12.77 billion.
“We realize that in certain parts of the market, there is an oversupply. Fortunately, we are not geographically in those areas. We believe that the products that we will be launching in the core will actually be very strong, and we will restart our launches in the core in the fourth quarter of the year,” said Ms. Dy.
Ayala Land said that its full-year capital expenditure spending is projected to be P85 billion, down from the previous forecast of P100 billion.
“This is lower as we reduced our launches and staggered the start of mall and hotel reinvention to minimize disruption in our operations,” she said.
She said that the company’s mall renovations in Glorietta, Trinoma, Greenbelt, and Ayala Center Cebu are ongoing, with an average completion rate of 40% expected by the end of the year. The entire renovation project is set to be fully completed by 2026.
“We are also bullish on the mid- to long-term prospects of our estates as we look to benefit from the road and rail infrastructure programs of the government and private sector,” she said.
To recall, the company, along with San Miguel Corp. and the Transportation department, broke ground for the Ayala Greenfield Interchange, which is expected to commence construction in November.
“We have also divested AirSWIFT to Cebu Pacific. They expect to increase the number of round-trip flights by 30%, and in turn, we will focus on Lio Airport, which we will expand to accommodate all its current passenger capacity,” Ms. Dy said.
Last month, Cebu Pacific acquired AirSWIFT from ALI Capital Corp., a unit of Ayala Land, for P1.75 billion.
“Lio Estate, where we will develop new hospitality formats and expand Seda Lio, as well as our commercial district in the next five years,” she said.
ALI Capital is the owner and operator of the Lio Airport in El Nido, Palawan, while Lio Tourism Estate is Ayala Land’s tourism estate in El Nido, Palawan.
At the stock exchange, shares in Ayala Land fell by P1.50, or 4.35%, to end at P33 apiece. — Ashley Erika O. Jose