Filinvest Land posts 29% profit hike

Gotianun-owned property developer Filinvest Land Inc. (FLI) reported a 29-percent jump in its net income for the first nine months of the year to P622 million, from P482 million the same period a year ago, on higher revenue contributions from affiliate Filinvest Alabang Inc. (FAI).

Last Sept. 29 FLI acquired the ownership interest of FAI and Filinvest Asia Corp. in three major properties in Metro Manila-PBCom Tower, Festival Supermall, and Northgate Cyberzone. The acquisition has allowed FLI to diversify its revenue base.

FLI told the stock exchange that its sales reservations as of October also grew 23 percent, mainly due to marketing and sales strategies, the financing packages offered by FLI, and the overall growth in the Philippine economy.

In addition to being among the leading affordable and middle-income residential developers in the country, FLI now has retail and office businesses that are expected to provide recurring income for the company starting this quarter.

As of Sept. 30 this year, FLI had total consolidated assets of P40.9 billion and stockholders’ equity of P28.7 billion, with a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24 to 1.

FLI has earmarked P2.5 billion for its capital expenditures next year, excluding the P700-million to P800-million budget allotted for Cyberzone Properties Inc.

Early this year, Filinvest sold part of Cyberzone, its information technology park development arm in Alabang, Muntinlupa to Africa-Israel Investments Ltd.

The capital expenses eyed for Cyberzone would go to the construction of two more buildings, i-hub 1 and i-hub 2, that would have nine stories each. These buildings are aside from the Cyberzone building currently being built on the 18.7-hectare Northgate Cyberzone IT Park at the Filinvest Corporate City. This building will be a six-storey, 10,800-square-meter office facility registered with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority.

Filinvest has estimated the construction cost of each building to hit P100 million.

Funding for the project will come from the proceeds of its sale of 3.7 billion common shares.