Megaworld eyes Philippines' biggest REIT IPO

MANILA, Philippines — Property giant Megaworld Corp. is preparing what could be the biggest maiden share sale of a real estate investment trust (REIT) firm in the country.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange, Megaworld said it has asked both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Philippine Stock Exchange to clear the planned P27.3-billion initial public offering of its own REIT company MREIT Inc.

To raise that amount, MREIT would sell 1.2 billion common shares for P22 each. Assuming full exercise of the overallotment option, proceeds from the mega IPO would eclipse the capital raised by previous REIT firms.

Last year, Ayala-backed AREIT Inc., the country’s first REIT firm, defied pandemic uncertainties when it raised P13.6 billion. DoubleDragon Properties Corp.’s DDMP REIT Inc. kicked off this year’s IPO season with a P14.7 billion share sale. Apart from Megaworld’s MREIT, there are two more REIT IPOs in the pipeline: Robinsons Land Corp.’s RL Commercial REIT Inc. (P26.7 billion) and Filinvest Group’s Filinvest REIT Corp. (P14.8 billion).

“Our REIT includes properties in three of our most sought-after premier township developments of Eastwood City, McKinley Hill, and Iloilo Business Park, which are home to around 200,000 BPO and other office workers today,” Kevin Andrew L. Tan, president and chief executive of MREIT, said.

“Our ‘tried-and-tested’ signature concept of the township has attracted over 200 BPO and multinational companies to locate with us through the years since we started our first-ever Eastwood cyberpark in 1999,” Tan added.

As a publicly-owned listed company, REIT is tasked to use proceeds from share sale to purchase and manage income-generating property assets such as malls, offices and warehouses. At least 90% of income from these ventures are required to be declared as dividends with shareholders.

MREIT’s portfolio consists of 10 office, retail and hotel assets with an aggregate gross leasable area of 224,430.80 square meters. These are located in three prime townships of Megaworld - Eastwood City in Quezon City, McKinley Hill in Taguig City, and Iloilo Business Park in Mandurriao, Iloilo City.

On Wednesday, shares in Megaworld ended flat at P3.28 apiece.