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Richmond Mercurio - The Philippine Star
February 21, 2025 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Property giant Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) plans to raise up to P75 billion in debt capital to support its continued growth after posting a robust performance in 2024 behind record-high revenues.
ALI said that its board has approved the fundraising initiative, which is intended to partially finance general corporate requirements and refinance maturing debt.
The company will raise the amount through the issuance of retail bonds and corporate notes for listing on the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp. as well as through execution of bilateral term loans.
ALI chief finance officer Augusto Bengzon said in an investor briefing yesterday that P25 billion of the planned debt capital this year would go for refinancing, while another P30 billion would be used to fund the company’s capital expenditures.
“The fundraising will all be domestic peso. Of the P75 billion, P25 billion of that is earmarked for refinancing. So we have maturities of P25 billion,” Bengzon said.
“The balance of the P50 billion, it’s probably on the high side. We think we’ll be borrowing much less than that. Most likely, we’ll go to the market for P30 billion, of which half will go to bank financing and the other half, we will tap the capital markets,” he said.
ALI president and CEO Anna Ma. Margarita Bautista-Dy said the company is allocating P95 billion in capital expenditure for 2025.
She said 37 percent of this year’s capex would go to the residential segment, while 25 percent will be for estate development and 23 percent will be spent for ALI’s leasing and hospitality assets.
For this year, Dy said the company is also looking at P100-billion worth of property development launches, P80 billion in residential and P20 billion for commercial and industrial lots.
“Finally, we aim to achieve two times GDP growth in our bottom line. We look forward to the year and believe we are well positioned for what lies ahead,” she said.
Aside from the fundraising plan, ALI’s board likewise approved a property-for-share swap with AREIT Inc. valued at P20.99 billion.
The property-for-share swap involves the subscription of ALI and its subsidiaries, Accendo Commercial Corp., Cagayan de Oro Gateway Corp. and Central Bloc Hotel Ventures Inc. to 505.89 million primary common shares of AREIT in exchange for eight commercial properties.
The transaction is for approval of the AREIT shareholders at their annual meeting on April.
Supported by the strength of its diversified portfolio, ALI achieved solid growth across its business lines last year despite headwinds in the operating environment.
ALI’s net income jumped by 15 percent to P28.2 billion in 2024 as revenues surged by 21 percent year-on-year to P180.7 billion.
“We ended the year on solid footing, with all our business lines executing on their growth strategies,“ Dy said.
“We look forward to the year and are excited to bring innovative residential and leasing offerings to our customers, expand our market reach and capture new business opportunities,” she said.
Revenues from property development businesses grew by 22 percent in 2024 to P112.9 billion, driven by higher residential and estate lot bookings.
ALI saw residential revenues accelerate by 23 percent to P94.9 billion on higher bookings across all brands.
Revenues from commercial and industrial lots, meanwhile, soared by 34 percent to P14.6 billion on the back of demand for lots outside Metro Manila.
The company said that its office-for-sale also contributed P3.5 billion, mainly from project bookings.
Resilient demand from the premium segment, horizontal projects and developments in suburban estates enabled ALI to achieve residential sales reservations of P127.1 billion, up 12 percent year-on-year.
ALI’s total launches for 2024 reached P80.5 billion, 64 percent of which are located outside Metro Manila.
For its leasing and hospitality business, revenues increased by nine percent to P45.6 billion as a result of healthy operations of existing assets combined with the contribution of new assets.
The company further bolstered its portfolio by opening a total of 72,000 square meters of new commercial leasing space in 2024.
