Vista Land allots P5.1 B capex for 2017

MANILA, Philippines - Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc., the Villar family’s mall and property developer, is pouring in P5.1 billion for capital expenditures for next year and to refinance its existing debt.

The company has signed the 10-year corporate notes facility agreement, which has a fixed rate of 6.1879 percent per annum, with various financial institutions such as China Bank Capital Corp. as the mandated lead arranger, China Banking Corp. –Trust Group as the facility agent, and the company’s subsidiaries Brittany Corp., Crown Asia Properties Inc., Camella Homes Inc., Communities Philippines Inc., Vista Residences Inc. and Starmalls Inc. as guarantors.

The proceeds of the facility would be used to pre-fund the company’s 2017 capital expenditures and refinance its existing indebtedness and for other general corporate purposes, Vista Land said.

Vista Land founder and chairman Manuel B. Villar Jr. earlier revealed the company’s plans to build 10 more malls from 2017 to 2018.

It is pouring in P18 billion for the two-year expansion which would boost the company’s total gross floor area to 1.3 million square meters from just 910,000 sqm at present.

The plan is to build seven Vista Malls, the regular mall which has a size of 30,000 sqm and three Vista Places, the smaller version with a size of roughly 15,000 sqm.

Vista Land will build The Vista Place in Malolos, Bulacan; Kawit, Cavite, and Cagayan de Oro City, while the new VistaMalls will be in Iloilo City, Davao City, Dasmariñas in Cavite, two in Bacoor, and two in Las Piñas (Molino in Daang Hari and the expansion of Evia City which is at the opposite end of Daang Hari).

All the malls will have anchor establishments such as AllHome, AllDay Supermarket, AllToys, The Coffee Project and AllShop department store.

The company is also ramping up the expansion of the company’s flagship mall in Evia City in Las Piñas, which opened just this year and is now fully leased out with a waiting list of tenants.

The company is building the lifestyle mall in phases with the second phase to include a hotel.

Phase 2 will be about 50,000 square meters and will cost P2 billion, while the third phase will be close to 40,000 sqm at a cost of P1.6 billion.