Ortigas & Co may go public to finance its dev’t projects

Ortigas & Co., the real estate and property company of the Ortigas family, is looking at going public as a means of raising funds to finance its development projects, The STAR learned.

This as company chief operating officer Rex Drilon disclosed that the company allocated at least P700 million this year for new projects as well as rehabilitation of existing ones. Around P400 million is being spent for the rehabilitation of the Virra Mall shopping complex which will be opened to the public this December as the new V Mall.

Another P300 million was put into the development of Frontera Verde, an 18.5-hectare project at the corner of Ortigas Avenue in C-5 in Pasig. In this new shopping and entertainment corridor rose the three-hectare Tiendesitas (the four-star equivalent of world-renowned Chatuchak Market in Bangkok) in which the Ortigas group spent two-thirds (P200 million) of the amount.

Tiendesitas opens to the public today with 450 tenants clustered in villages (handicrafts village, fashion, personal care and novelties, pets, plants, antiques, furniture, food, delicacies, and wet market village open from 12 noon to midnight) featuring Philippine-made products.

Frontera Verde will have as among its locators the first stand-alone hypermart of SM. According to Drilon, the SM group is finalizing its development plans although the hypermart is expected to be open by the second half of next year.

Other locators include an automall which will be unveiled in the first quarter of 2006, a technology corridor, a wellness center, a fun ranch for kids, among others.

Founded in 1971, Ortigas & Co., now one-third owned by Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp. (HSBC) and the rest by the two Ortigas families, used to own 4,000 hectares of real property from Pasig River all the way to Loyola Heights. It developed the highly successful Valle Verde and Green Meadow subdivisions. After selling most of its property, it currently has less than 100 hectares of prime property, including the land on which company owned 16-hectare Greenhills Shopping Center and Frontera Verde stands.

Drilon said that Ortigas & Co., which used to be a family corporation, is currently a limited partnership, but the group has always seriously considered becoming a listed company. "We are taking this matter slowly but eventually we will get there, but it has to be at the right time. Right now, we can finance our projects using our own funds, but as we can see from the track that other real estate companies have taken, growing big may have to entail raising funds from other sources," he told The STAR.

He pointed out that though times have been difficult for business in general, Ortigas & Co continues to invest about P500 million a year into Greenhills development.

Aside from the highly successful Greenhills Shipping Center, other Ortigas projects that have become models in real estate development are the Ortigas Center business district, the three Greenhills subdivisions, the six Valle Verde villages, and the three Greenmeadows residential enclaves.

The company’s net asset value, according to Drilon, is between P20 and P30 billion.

Drilon also disclosed that the company is still in negotiations with the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) to get back the 18.5-hectare prime Payanig complex in Pasig which was bought from the Ortigas at "concessional prices" during the Martial Law regime.

Ortigas & Co is also studying for possible development the one-hectare corridor between Valle Verde and Green Meadows.