Alliance Global profit soars 28% to P3.2 billion in 9 months

MANILA, Philippines - Alliance Global Group Inc. (AGI), the listed investment holding firm of tycoon Andrew Tan, reported a 28 percent growth in net income for the nine months ending September this year, mainly due to higher interest income on real estate sales.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, AGI said its net earnings amounted to P3.2 billion this year, compared with P2.5 billion the year earlier.

Consolidated revenues rose seven percent to P25.6 billion, with half of it coming from the property business, 45 percent from the consumer business and five percent from finance and other income sources.

Under the group’s consumer business are fastfood through Golden Arches Corp., the franchise holder for the local operations of McDonalds and Emperador Distillers Inc., which produces leading brandy labels Emperador and Generoso, as well as the newly introduced The Bar flavored alcoholic beverage.

AGI’s property development arm Megaworld Corp. posted a net income of P3 billion, up five percent from P2.9 billion. The consumer business, on the other hand, reported a 14 percent hike in net profit to P756 million.

AGI president Kingson Sian said the company managed to post strong gains in spite of the difficult global business environment.

“We are confident that we executed the right strategies last year and took the right actions to drive the sustained growth of AGI,” Sian said.

In 2008, AGI, through Travellers International, entered into a joint venture with Star Cruises Ltd. to build the country’s first 24/7 integrated tourism estate in Newport City called Resorts World Manila, across Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, and Resorts World Bayshore City, located within the 90-hectare Bagong Nayong Pilipino Entertainment City Manila.

Star Cruises is part of the Malaysian conglomerate Genting Berhad, and is the world’s third largest cruise line operator.

AGI has committed to invest over $500 million to develop Resorts World Manila, which includes the 172 all-suite Maxims Hotel, the 342-room five-star Marriott Hotel and a budget hotel called Remington.

The three hotels will have a total of about 1,500 rooms. Resorts World Manila also features a grand mall with a sky roof-covered piazza, world-class theater, gaming facility and other retail, leisure and entertainment facilities. The entire project, once completed by 2012, will generate more than 10,000 direct and indirect jobs. 

The five-star Marriott Hotel is open for business, as is a portion of the gaming and entertainment facility. RWM has also recently inaugurated the Newport City Transport Terminal, which provides 24-hour access to and from the airport terminals as well as various parts of Metro Manila and neighboring provinces.

Travellers International is set to embark soon on a larger integrated tourism estate called Resorts World Bayshore City. It is envisioned as a themed development with about 2,500 hotel rooms, along with leisure, retail and entertainment facilities. Given its scale, Resorts World Bayshore City is expected to create over 100,000 direct and indirect jobs.

Bagong Nayong Pilipino Entertainment City Manila originated as a pioneering vision of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., led by chairman Efraim Genuino. This master-planned tourism estate is expected to be a catalyst for the local tourism industry.

Travellers International has committed to invest at least $1.1 billion in developing the two Resorts World projects over the next five years.

“We believe that our existing projects will be able to position AGI as a major player in the growing tourism industry in the country,” Sian said.