Robinsons Land to spend up to P8B for various expansion projects
An article published in The
Business Mirror, December 18, 2006
By: Honey Madrilejos-Reyes
Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC) will continue to
invest in the country's flourishing property market by spending P7 billion
to P8 billion annually to fund various projects.
The property arm of the Gokongwei-led JG Summit Holdings has programmed P7
billion for such projects in 2007, and P8 billion the following year.
Company president Frederick Go said that annually, they would most likely
program such amount for the building of shopping malls, high-rise office
buildings and residential projects.
“Our plan really is to build three malls a year, one office building a year,
three residential projects a year and one hotel every three years,” Go said.
As of end June this year, RLC operated 18 shopping malls, comprising six
malls in Metro Manila and 12 in other urban areas throughout the country.
RLC's high-rise buildings division, meanwhile, had completed seven projects,
consisting of four office buildings and three residential Condominium
projects.
RLC's hotels division owns and operates hotels Metro Manila and Cebu City .
This division currently has a portfolio of three hotels and a serviced
apartment building.
The company said it would continue to introduce new formats in the
residential and commercial real-estate market.
In an earlier interview, RLC vice chairman Lance Y. Gokongwei said the
proposed capital expenditure would be partly covered by the P5.23billion in
proceeds RLC netted from the sale of primary shares. The company would also
resort to borrowings in the latter part of 2008 to raise funds.
In October, RLC sold up to 770,585,800 offer shares to international
investors, of which up to 450,000,000 were issued and offered by RLC by way
of primary or new offer. Some 320,585,800 existing shares were also offered
by the selling shareholders, such as JG Summit and two other units, as part
of the secondary offering.
In addition, some 40,550,400 secondary common shares were sold to domestic
investors at P12.00 a share.
The share sale “affirms the fact that the Philippine property development
industry is back in full force,” said Gokongwei. “After a long down cycle,
the industry is finally climbing to even greater heights led by the many
listed property companies that have become prime beneficiaries of a stronger
resurgent economy.”
The sale of additional shares has raised the public float or shares owned by
the public in RLC to 40 percent from 7 percent. The balance of 60-percent
remains with JG Summit.
RLC shares on Friday fell 1.56 percent to close at P15.75.