ALI net income surges 35% to record P1.42 billion in third quarter

MANILA, Philippines - Property giant Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) said yesterday its net earnings rose 35 percent in the third quarter this year to an all time high of P1.42 billion, marking its sixth consecutive quarter of positive growth.

In the nine months ending September this year, ALI’s net income rose to a record P3.94 billion, also an increase of 35 percent from the same period a year earlier on robust growth across all its major business lines.

Consolidated revenues reached P27.87 billion for the nine-month period, 24 percent higher year-on-year. Real estate and hotel revenues grew 25 percent to P26.22 billion. Earnings per share, on the other hand, improved to 30 centavos as against 22 centavos a year ago.

Consolidated net operating income amounted to P7.96 billion, up 26 percent from the previous level with overall NOI margins maintained at 30 percent despite of a drop in shopping center margins due to the ongoing redevelopment of Ayala Center in Makati.

“It was another good quarter and we experienced strong growth across all our major business lines. Together with strict cost discipline, this allowed us to achieve record earnings and we hope to sustain this moving forward. We are also well on track towards achieving our operating goals for the year as well as our long term goal of significantly improving profitability and capital returns over the next few years,” said Jaime Ysmael, senior vice-president and chief finance officer of ALI.

Revenues from the residential business went up 18 percent to P12.47 billion with strong growth in bookings across all residential brands. Ayala Land Premier (ALP), which caters to the high-end segment of the market, registered a 20 percent year-on-year growth in revenues mainly on strong sales of Park Terraces (Makati) and Serendra West Tower (Bonifacio Global City) condominium units as well as Santierra lots in Nuvali in Laguna.

Middle income brands Alveo and Avida also posted year-on-year revenue growth of 23 percent and 12 percent, respectively, with higher bookings from the success of new launches such as Meranti in Bonifacio Global City and Venare (Nuvali) for Alveo, and Avida Towers Cebu and Alabang for Avida.

Together with its affordable housing unit Amaia, ALI’s four residential brands launched a total of 8,396 units in the first nine months, nearly double the group’s average full year launches for the past five years. ALI generated residential sales take-up value of P26.7 billion for the period under review, averaging nearly P3 billion of sales take-up every month.

Meanwhile, total revenues for shopping centers improved six percent to P3.52 billion, driven by the seven percent expansion in occupied gross leasable area (GLA) as the addition of MarQuee Mall in Pampanga and improved occupancy rate at Greenbelt 5 more than offset the closure of Glorietta 1.

ALI has broken ground on nine new shopping centers so far this year, which will boost total GLA of the Ayala Malls Group portfolio to 137,000 square meters. These projects include three regional malls (Harbor Point in Subic and the redevelopment of Glorietta in Makati and the Alabang Town Center), two community centers (Solenad 2 in Nuvali and the East Block in Bonifacio Global City), and four neighborhood centers (Ayala Triangle in Makati, Baguio BPO retail, Iloilo BPO retail, and eBloc 2 retail in Cebu).