EDSA Properties to expand scope of RP operations

EDSA Properties Holdings Inc., the local property arm of the Kuok Group, will expand the scope of its operations in the Philippines with its planned venture into freight, warehousing and logistics business, the company informed the Philippine Stock Exchange.

EPHI corporate secretary Federico Noel Jr. said the company will invest in a new holding firm to be jointly owned and controlled with its affiliate, the Hong Kong-based Kerry Logistics Network. "The joint venture company is poised to further invest in, among other, freight, warehousing and logistics business in the Philippines," he said.

Formerly listed as MUI Resources, the company was acquired in 1999 by the Kuok Group – one of the largest diversified conglomerates in Asia – through subsidiary Kerry Properties Ltd., among the biggest property investment and development companies in Hong Kong and China.

With total assets worth P12.88 billion as of end 2001, EPHI has investments in various high-end properties such as the Shangri-La Hotel chain, Shangri-La Plaza Mall and the Enterprise Center in Makati.

With the expansion into the logistics business, EPHI will boost its capital stock from P4.5 billion to P6 billion, the increase of which will be mainly subscribed through a 57-percent stock dividend declared last February.

The stock dividend is on top of a seven-centavo cash dividend granted this week for stockholders on record as of March 31, 2002, to be paid early next month.

Last year, EPHI posted a strong 37.5-percent increase in net income to P223.5 million, on the back of a nine-percent gain in group revenues to P605.3 million mainly derived from tenant rentals at the renovated Shangri-La Plaza and Enterprise Center. – Conrado Diaz Jr.