Ayala invests P16B in 6 malls
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by Land Asia Listings
- February 1, 2017
- Blog, News
- 0
AYALA MALLS will have invested P16 billion upon completing its sixth shopping center scheduled to open within the year.
The mall business of listed property developer Ayala Land, Inc. earmarked such an amount for disbursement over a three-year period, its head Rowena M. Tomeldan said in an e-mail correspondence.
In an earlier interview, Ms. Tomeldan has identified five more shopping centers going live within the year, following The 30th that opened along Meralco Avenue in Pasig City on Jan. 11.
Ayala Malls will open Vertis next along North EDSA in Quezon City in April; Marikina Heights in May; Cloverleaf in Balintawak, Quezon City in October; Feliz along Marcos Highway near Rizal province in November; and One Bonifacio within the business district of Taguig City in December.
In addition, Ayala Land targets to open a 6,000-square meter (sq.m.) retail area within its Southvale development in Alabang, Muntinlupa City within the year, Ms. Tomeldan noted during the e-mail correspondence.
The mall developments — excluding the One Bonifacio project undertaken by Ayala Land with Evergreen Holdings, Inc. under a joint venture called Fort Bonifacio Development Corp. — cost P16 billion, Ms. Tomeldan said.
In 2018, the property development arm of the Ayala Group will open malls in the Bay Area, the Capitol Central in Bacolod and the Cebu IT Park.
Ayala Malls intends to build more shopping centers outside the National Capital Region, Ms. Tomeldan noted, as the group targets to expand its portfolio to 3 million sq.m. in terms of leasable area by 2020.
“For now, the focus is still — I’d say, we go with the other Ayala developments. Definitely, we are in the growth centers. I can’t say that it’s just Metro Manila. There are growth centers in the Philippines. That’s what we are looking at,” Ms. Tomeldan said.
Ayala Malls is confident about receiving warm reception in other parts of the Philippines. Part of the business’ strategy is locating within communities or mixed-used developments mostly undertaken by Ayala Land.
“One thing we are so proud about and that we are so humbled by is how happy the community is each time they find out that we’re going to be there,” Ms. Tomeldan said.
“Because we’re really focused on meeting the needs and wants of the community, that’s the reason why the community welcomes us. We’re really happy about that and we really try to strengthen that bond with the community.”
The expansion plans of Ayala Malls aligns with Ayala Land’s strategy to balance its revenue stream between property development and leasing.
In the first nine months of 2016, revenues from the commercial leasing business increased 12% to P19.17 billion from P17.18 billion following the expansion of the company’s malls, offices and hotels and resorts portfolios.
At the time, Ayala Land had 1.57 million sq.m. of gross leasable area under its shopping mall portfolio, 753,000 sq.m. under the office segment and 1,991 rooms under the hotel and resort folder.
The company continued to source bulk of its revenues from the property development business in the first three quarters of 2016, after launching projects worth P49.2 billion. Income from the segment amounted 12% higher to P52.61 billion.
Ayala Land netted P15.06 billion during the nine-month period, a 17% increase from the P12.83 billion booked for the comparable 2015 period.
Its stock price closed 50 centavos or 1.41% higher at P35.85 on Monday.
