Megawide bets big on real estate

MANILA, Philippines — Megawide Construction Corp., the engineering company led by Edgar Saavedra, is betting big on the property business with its acquisition of affiliate PH1 World Developers Inc.

During the company’s annual shareholders meeting yesterday, Megawide shareholders approved the company’s acquisition of PH1 World from Citicore Holdings Investments Inc. for P5.2 billion.

PH1 World is a real estate company is also chaired by Saavedra and is under Citicore Holdings, the parent company of Megawide.

The acquisition was an intuitive move, said Saavedra, noting that Megawide has the “core competency” and knows the construction and real estate business well.

“We have been doing the business for the last 26 to 27 years, we are very familiar with the market,” he said.

He also noted that the margins for real estate business are higher compared to just construction and can even reach double digits. This also means higher topline and bottomline.

Moving forward, PH1 World is targeting the affordable housing segment to address the gaps in the Philippine housing market.

“We will try to target lower to mid-income levels but the majority of the product would be below mid income level,” Saavedra said.

PH1 is a real estate company with four existing projects: The Hive, My Enso Lofts, Modan Lofts Pasco and Modan Lofts Ortigas Hills.

Additional pipeline projects are also being transferred to the company. These include projects from PH1 World Landscapes Inc. and Famtech Properties Inc.

PH1 World achieved a 108 percent sales growth last year, surpassing its targets and enticing a diverse clientele both locally and internationally.