ALI to raise $250M from top-up placement

MANILA, Philippines - Property giant Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) is looking to raise around $250 million through a top-up placement to beef up its land bank and support its capital expenditure program.

In a top-up placement, the company sells existing shares to investors and issues new shares to replace those.

Sources said ALI has launched a top-up placement of 530 million shares.

ALI is embarking on a record expansion with the aim of further enlarging its footprint and attract a much bigger and more stable base of consumers. The group aims to have significant presence in each key city in Metro Manila and replicate the success of its huge master-planned projects in all parts of the country.

For this year, ALI is launching 67 new projects with an unprecedented potential sales value of around P90 billion.

Bulk of the new developments will comprise 50 residential projects, equivalent to about 25,000 units across its five brands to cater to the different segments of the local economic pyramid. This is 25 percent more than the 20,000 units rolled out in 2010.

ALI plans to penetrate new areas like Cavite, Bulacan, Rizal, Pampanga and major cities in Visayas and MIndanao.

ALI serves the high-end market through Ayala Land Premier while it also serves the middle-income, affordable and economic housing segments through Alveo Land and Avida Land, respectively. Last year, it branched out into the socialized housing segment via BellaVita.

In its commercial leasing business, the group intends to duplicate this strategy of geographic expansion, product diversification and market broadening as it aims to double its gross leasable area by 2014.

It will open three malls this year including the first phase of the Ayala Center redevelopment, Harbourpoint in Subic and the Centrio mall in Davao.

ALI launched a total if 141,000 sqm of shopping center GLA last year, including the expansion of Ayala Center Cebu, renovation of San Antonio Plaza Arcade in Makati, the retail component of Ayala Northpoint Technohub in Negros Occidental , Fairview Terraces in Quezon City, and The District along Daang Hari in Cavite — which are expected to come on stream in the next couple of years.