ALI earnings hit record P4.04 B in 2010

MANILA, Philippines - Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) said its net earnings reached a record P4.04 billion last year, up 35 percent from 2009, on brisk sales across all business segments.

In the fourth quarter of 2010, ALI posted its highest core quarterly earnings at P1.52 billion, making it the seventh consecutive quarter of positive earnings growth for the property giant.

Revenues from real estate and hotels grew 24 percent to P37.81 billion as it posted record-high residential sales and margins of its shopping center and office leasing properties continued to improve.

“Ayala Land had a banner year in 2010, mainly because of the strong performance of our major business lines, and aided by tight cost-control measures that are in place. We achieved record-high residential sales and our shopping center and office leasing properties continued to do very well. We were also more aggressive in launching projects all over the country compared with previous years. Overall, we have exceeded our targets and made very good progress towards our longer term goals,” said ALI president Antonino T. Aquino.

Residential revenues amounted to P16.64 billion, up 16 percent from a year earlier as the combined value of bookings for all residential brands more than doubled to P24 billion. High-end residential development unit Ayala Land Premier (ALP) accounted for P7.22 billion of total or an increase of 10 percent year-on-year.

Alveo and Avida also posted year-on-year revenue growth of 26 percent and 15 percent respectively, with higher bookings from the success of new launches such as Meranti (Bonifacio Global City) and Venare (Nuvali) for Alveo and Avida Towers Cebu and Alabang for Avida.

Together with newly launched Amaia Land, the company’s four residential brands launched a total of 10,115 units in 2010, more than three times the number launched the previous year. This resulted in a strong sales take-up value of P33.14 billion, averaging nearly P2.8 billion of sales take-up every month.

For this year, ALI is anticipating continued demand for residential products and will be launching over 20,000 units across all residential brands with an estimated sales value of P57 billion.

Total revenues for shopping centers reached P4.6 billion, three percent higher than the previous year driven by the one percent expansion in occupied gross leasable area (GLA) as the continued ramp-up of MarQuee Mall in Pampanga and the improved occupancy rate at Greenbelt 5 more than offset the closure of Glorietta 1.

The retail environment remained buoyant as same-store sales for all building and land leases increased b 7 percent year-on-year. For 2011, the company is set to start the operations of additional GLA with the opening of Abreeza Mall in Davao and Harbor Point in Subic, among others.

ALI will also launch a total of seven new retail projects across the country this year with a combined GLA of 172,000 square meters.

Revenues from corporate business grew 21 percent to P2.4 billion due to the significant increase in occupied business process outsourcing (BPO) office GLA of 34 percent year-on-year, as the outlook and demand for BPO space continue to improve. Total available BPO GLA has now reached 272,676 square meters with an occupancy rate of 70 percent (and an 88 percent lease-out rate) compared with 55 percent a year ago.

For 2011, the Company continues to see positive prospects for expansion within and outside Metro Manila and will begin the construction of additional 200,000 square meters of GLA. ALI will also start the operation of five new BPO buildings in Baguio, Nuvali, Iloilo, Bacolod and Cebu totaling 55,000 square meters of GLA. 

The construction, property management and hotels businesses generated combined revenues of P8.86 billion, up 79 percent from P4.96 billion. The improvement came largely from the higher completion of external construction projects and improving hotel operations combined with the impact of the consolidation of the El Nido resort operations.