Angping buys P50-M Philrealty shares from A Brown Co

A. Brown Co. Inc. has sold 77 million shares in Philippine Realty & Holdings Corp. to stock broker Jerry Angping for about P50 million.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), A. Brown said the shares were sold yesterday at 65 centavos each, a sharp discount to Philrealty’s closing price of 84 centavos yesterday.

Angping said he was representing a group of real estate developers and that the investment was not that significant. He declined to name the parties behind the sale.

Philrealty stocks have been on the rise the past few days prior to this transaction.

Philrealty is expected to trim its debt to P300 million by yearend from nearly P900 million at the start of the year, using part of the proceeds from the sale of its shares in International Exchange Bank, totalling P1.1 billion.

For this year, the company expects to generate P1.1 billion in sales from its residential condominium project in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig. The project is in joint venture with Xcell Property Ventures Inc.

Philrealty also hopes to resume work at the Andrea North Skyline Tower once it receives payments for the land of Tower 2, which is expected to happen before the end of the year.

Starting in 1998, Philrealty has offered land properties to banks as payment for its obligations through dacion en pago to substantially reduce its obligations. Its strategy is to enter into joint ventures, whereby Philrealty will merely contribute the land and other pre-development expenditures while the partner will shoulder the cost of construction of the building.

Philrealty reported a significant turnaround in its financial performance last year as it posted a net income of P323.52 million as against a net loss of P94.4 million in 2004. The turnaround was due to the gain earned from the reversal of excess accrued interest in accordance with the court-approved rehabilitation program and by the jump in equity earnings.

In December 2005, Philrealty started payment of interest on its restructured loan. Consolidated gross revenues reached P507 million, up 223 percent from P157 million in 2004. Rental income likewise went up 22.1 percent as major areas were leased out.

The company filed for rehabilitation with the courts after being saddled with losses since the slump of the real estate industry in 1997.

Philrealty is primarily known for its projects in the Ortigas Center, foremost of which is the Tektite Towers — the headquarters of the PSE. Philrealty’s other assets include the Alexandra Condominiums in Ortigas and lot properties in Tagaytay, Batangas, Quezon and Rizal.