Globe Asiatique income surges 82% to a record P502 million in 2009

MANILA, Philippines - Backed by the continued strong sales in its residential projects, Globe Asiatique Realty Holdings Corp. (GA), one of the country’s biggest property developers, posted an 82- percent hike in its net earnings last year to a record P502 million, from P275 million in 2008.

In a statement, the company said gross profit on real estate sales rose 35 percent to P1.5 billion as realized revenues from real estate increased by P322 million, anchored on the heavy take-up of units in Xevera Mabalacat and Chateau Valenzuela, coupled with the completion of the initial phase of Xevera Bacolor.

GA is a leading developer of affordable townships, as well as a prominent player in the high-rise residential condominium market.

Chateau Valenzuela, originally an 18-building cluster of mid-rise condominiums in Valenzuela City, is now on its 17th building with plans of adding another eight buildings in the next two years through its expansion phase. Meanwhile, the Xevera projects in Bacolor and Mabalacat towns in Pampanga are 80 percent and 70 percent complete, respectively, both also with their own expansion programs.

Last year, GA sold 11 percent more residential units across all projects, or a total of 5,384 units worth P4.1 billion.

“We are pleased with the market’s response to our Xevera projects in Pampanga. This episode brought about the all-time high income of the company in the last 16 years. GA will continue to focus on its vision of providing quality housing for the low-income Filipino families. We expect the demand to be undersupplied for the next five to seven years, and we anticipate that the business will continue to grow in this segment,” said GA president Delfin Lee.

Building on this momentum, Xevera Neo-Calapan in Oriental, Mindoro, the company’s third and latest project under the Xevera brand, is undergoing construction at full blast, with a scheduled launching date in April.

“We envision every Xevera project to be a self-sustaining community with amenities provided by the company – a school, commercial mall, wet and dry market, municipal hall, town plaza, theme park, church and clubhouse, among others,” said Lee.

GA’s other groundbreaking projects include St. Monique Valais in Binangonan, Rizal –where the hit TV reality show Pinoy Big Brother patterned its exterior house design; Casa Ibiza in Antipolo; The Enclave, The Courtyard and Sameera all in Angeles City, Pampanga; New Sta. Rosa Homes in Laguna; GA Twin Towers in Mandaluyong; and the 38-story GA Sky Suites and Corporate Tower in Quezon Avenue – soon to rise as the tallest building along EDSA.

The Enclave, a high-end executive subdivision, is 90- percent complete. The Sameera, a socialized housing project which offers the same quality and host of amenities associated with the Xevera brand at a lower price-point, is scheduled for launching next month. GA’s first commercial project, The Courtyard, was launched last January and is now fully leased out to restaurants, bars and food chains.

Sta. Rosa Homes, a four-hectare low-cost housing project, is 60-percent complete.

On the other hand, the upscale GA Sky Suites is 30- percent complete, with a 38-floor semi circular residential building and a 25-floor curvilinear corporate tower due for turnover to homebuyers in 2012.

To fund the development of its housing projects on a wider, nationwide scale, GA plans to raise as much as P3 billion through an initial public offering (IPO) of its shares at the stock market.

The stock sale will involve between 15 to 26 percent of GA’s outstanding capital, at an indicative price range of P6.50 to P10 per share. Specifically, GA will offer a total of 170.4 million common shares (136.36 million primary and 34.09 million secondary) with an over-allotment option of up to 168.71 million shares.

The IPO, once approved by securities regulators, will break a nearly two-year lull in major listings at the Philippine Stock Exchange. Based on PSE data, the last major IPO was that of beer giant San Miguel Brewery which raised P25 billion in fresh capital in May 2008.

Since that time, all companies that entered the stock market did so by way of introductory listing, a process which involve listing their shares directly, or without going through an IPO.