Robinsons Land public offering may be deferred

The planned public offering of Robinsons Land Corp., scheduled this year, may be moved to next year depending on market conditions, according to a top company official.

"Hopefully, we can do it (the offering) this year but it would all depend on market conditions," said RLC president Lance Gokongwei.

Gokongwei said RLC has already filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, covering the sale of up to 932 million million shares to both local and international institutional investors.

The public offering, scheduled in June or July this year, aimed at boosting trading liquidity. It is expected to raise about $220 million in proceeds.

RLC said the shares will be sold at a price to be computed on the basis of the volume weighted average trading price of the common shares for the 10 trading days immediately preceding the pricing date of said offering, subject to a discount of up to 10 percent.

The Gokongwei group wants to raise RLC’s minimum public float to as much as 40 percent from the current seven percent.

Macquarie Securities (Asia) Pte. Ltd was tapped as financial adviser for the offering.

Parent company JG Summit holds 74 percent of RLC, which operates shopping malls and develops high-rise residential and office condominiums and residential communities. About 19 percent of the property concern is held by URC.

RLC has set aside P7 billion this year for the development of new malls, office buildings for business process outsourcing firms, residential projects, and landbanking activities.

Bulk of the programmed capital budget or about P3.5 billion will go to the construction of residential and office buildings while P2 billion has been set aside for acquisition of properties for future development.

Funding will come from internally generated cash, the planned share offering, and possibly new borrowings.

RLC is building seven new malls in Davao, Tagaytay, Dumaguete, Sucat, Manila, Pangasinan, and General Santos. These new malls, he said, are expected to be completed next year or in 2008.

The company is also completing the redevelopment of a portion of Robinsons Galleria mall to be called West Wing, and Robinsons Ermita.

RLC remains focused on the lucrative middle-market residential housing as it aims to launch at least three projects this year including East of Galleria, a high-rise residential condominium located in Ortigas business district.

As for its office buildings, RLC expects to complete the construction of Robinsons Cybergate Center Tower 2, an office building complex designed for call centers and BPO firms.

As for the housing segment, RLC intends to focus on the middle-income market for lots with options for housing priced at a range of P600,000 to P2 million.

RLC is stepping up efforts to acquire properties via joint venture in key cities where there is big potential for mid-market real estate property sales and it will aggressively tap the overseas Filipino workers market in Europe and in the Middle East.