MANILA, Philippines - Starmalls Inc., the listed commercial arm of the Villar Group’s Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc., is setting aside P9 billion for capital expenditures this year on rosy prospects for the business, which posted a 41 percent growth in first quarter net income to P489 million.
The company generated P1.4 billion in revenues, 48 percent higher than a year ago, a good start for the year, its chairman Manuel Villar Jr. said.
“We remain optimistic with the retail industry’s outlook for the rest of the year, as we continue to see sustained growth in the disposable income of Filipinos due to sound Philippine macroeconomic fundamentals,” he said.
The company is also reaping the benefits of its full integration with Vista Land.
“We are now taking advantage of the synergies that has developed as a result of our integration into Vista Land,” Villar said.
Starmalls, formerly Polar Property Holdings Corp., owns and operates shopping malls which carry the Starmall name and cater to the retail mass market in the Philippines.
It also has a portfolio of business process outsourcing (BPO) commercial centers. It is among the movers in this market segment, focusing on locating in densely populated areas underserved by similar retail malls and within close proximity to transport hubs and key infrastructure.
It was a sister company of the Vista Land until the company formally acquired Starmalls last year, strengthening the Villar-owned developer as the country’s fourth largest integrated property business. The deal, estimated at P33 billion, combined the residential and shopping businesses of Villar, among the country’s billionaires.
As of March 31, 2017, Starmalls had 17 commercial assets in its portfolio and is still continuing to expand its leasable space.
Starmalls president Jerry Navarrete said the company is ramping up an expansion program that would deliver additional leasable space in the coming years as it develops existing commercial land bank and would also look at Vista Land’s over 600 hectares of land across the country suitable for commercial development.
“The company’s growth rate was robust as our expansion programs are already contributing to our financial performance in addition to the increased rental revenues from our existing malls brought about by favorable rental reversions and increased occupancy,” he added.