Robinsons Land profit jumps 36% to P1.4 B

MANILA, Philippines -Property developer Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC) saw its profits jump by a little over a third in the first quarter of its current fiscal year in the absence of extraordinary property losses incurred during the same period the previous year.

The property development arm of JG Summit Holdings said its net income in the first quarter of its 2015 fiscal year surged by 36 percent year-on-year to P1.4 billion driven by the solid growth of its office buildings and hotels divisions as well as the stable performance of its malls and residential divisions.

RLC also attributed the earnings to the absence of the extraordinary property losses it sustained in the same period during its fiscal year 2014 brought about by the Super Typhoon Haiyan that hit the country.

Revenues in the October to December 2014 period also increased by nine percent to P4.79 billion from P4.39 billion the previous year.

RLC said its commercial centers division generated 46 percent or P2.2 billion of the company’s gross revenues, posting a 12.6 percent growth year-on-year.

“Contributing to the growth were the six new malls opened in fiscal year 2014 namely Robinsons Place Butuan, Robinsons Town Mall Malabon, Robinsons Place Malolos, Robinsons Place Roxas, Robinsons Place Santiago and Robinsons Place Antipolo,” RLC said.

RLC intends to put up seven new shopping centers and complete three expansion projects in its existing malls over the next two years.

This year, the property developer is looking to open two of the seven new malls and complete one of the three planned expansion projects.

RLC opened Robinsons Place Las Piñas in October last year and will be opening its first mall in Antique, its flagship mall in Cebu, Robinsons Galleria Cebu, as well as expanding Robinsons Place Novaliches later this year.

The company’s residential division contributed 35 percent or P1.68 billion of RLC’s revenues, a flat performance from the previous year’s P1.67 billion.

The office buildings division, meanwhile, generated a tenth or P467.2 million of the company’s revenues, up by 29.1 percent from the previous year’s P361.8 million.

“Lease income is derived from 10 completed office buildings with a total occupancy of 99 percent, including Cyberscape Alpha and Cyberscape Beta which were opened in fiscal year 2014 and are located in the Ortigas Central Business District (CBD). Currently, Cyberscape Alpha is 100 percent leased out while Cyberscape Beta has a lease take up of 94 percent,” RLC said.

RLC is currently in the middle of completing construction of Tera Tower, which will be the first office building in its upcoming mixed-use development in Quezon City called Bridgetowne.

In order to capitalize on the growing BPO industry in the country, RLC said it plans to launch two more additional office buildings this year, the Giga Tower in Bridgetowne, and the Cyberscape Gamma building in the Ortigas Center.

Lastly, RLC’s hotels division contributed nine percent or P446.9 million to the company’s total  revenues.

The property company is slated to issue this month fixed-rate bonds in an aggregate principal amount of P10 billion with an oversubscription option up to P2 billion.

The bonds will have a fixed interest rate equivalent to 4.8 percent per annum for the seven year-tenor, and 4.93 percent for the 10-year tenor.

For its fiscal year 2015 covering the period of October 2014 to September 2015, RLC is earmarking a record P17 billion for capital expenditures (capex) to support its growth and expansion plans.

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