Belle Corp turns around with P163-M income in first quarter

Property developer Belle Corp. reported a turnaround in its financial performance during the first three months of the year as it posted a net income of P163.39 million from a net loss of P259 million during the same period a year ago.

Belle said the marked improvement resulted mainly from a decrease of P113.3 million in financial charges and P251 million in gains from the repurchase of $6.7 million in the principal amount of its floating rate notes at substantial discounts.

Net revenues of Belle from sales of real estate and club shares for the first quarter this year, however, decreased to P41.4 million from P68.3 million while gross profit went down by 32.8 percent to P25.5 million.

Total operating expenses, including depreciation and amortization, amounted to P27.8 million as against P35.2 million last year, helped substantially by lower depreciation expenses, as a result of the company’s disposal of unnecessary fixed assets during the period.

Total assets of the company reached decreased by P70.9 million to P11.54 billion as of end-March this year, due mainly to the use of assets to reduce liabilities. Total liabilities went down by 3.4 percent to P6.6 billion.

Belle expects sales of its farm lots project, named Plantation Hills at Tagaytay Greenlands, will result in a substantial pickup in revenues during the second half of 2003. This new project, which will initially be developed on approximately 30 hectares of rolling land with fertile volcanic soil, will offer lot buyers the opportunity to engage in cut-flower and vegetable cultivation and other agricultural pursuits.