Robinsons Land to expand on all fronts

MANILA, Philippines - Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC) is accelerating expansion across all its business segments with capital expenditures seen to rise by almost 40 percent this year to P9 billion in a move aimed at further boosting its presence and securing profitable long-term growth.

RLC president and chief operating officer Frederick Go said the company is building four malls and two office buildings this year to take advantage of a growing economy and steady inflows from Filipinos living and working abroad. Among the new malls scheduled for construction this year are in Pangasinan, Palawan, New Manila and Cebu, he said.

“We are very optimistic about the real estate industry. There is general confidence in the economy and the growing business process outsourcing sector and OFW remittances are supporting consumer spending,” Go said.

Go said the programmed capital budget, which is significantly higher than the P6.5 billion spent last year, excludes special land acquisitions that the company intends to pursue to capitalize on strong demand for residential properties. The company is looking to acquire two parcels of land in Metro Manila to be developed for office space.        

For hotels, RLC plans to put up a total of 30 Gohotels in and outside Metro Manila over a five year period. Programmed for opening this year are in Bacolod and Dumaguete. The next sites will rise Palawan, Iloilo, Cebu, and Tacloban for 2012 and Pangasinan, Ilocos Norte, Zamboanga, Batanes, and Gensan in 2013.

RLC is looking to expand overseas to further augment revenues. A planned stock rights offering of 1.3 billion shares, with a current market value of about P18.07 billion, is being planned within the first half this year to fund land acquisition, project construction and development, possible expansion in China and other general corporate purposes.

The rights offering shares will come from a planned capital hike from P3 billion to P8.2 billion of which 25 percent or P1.3 billion (at par value of one peso per share) will be subscribed and at least P325 million will be paid by way of the stock rights offering.RLC earlier said the increase in capital would give it “flexibility to access the equity capital markets in the future since the subscribed capital has almost reached the authorized capital stock.”

The company has offered to develop the 103-hectare Food Terminal Inc. (FTI) property in Taguig into a modern, world-class mixed-use development.

RLC has four integrated large-scale mixed use developments in Ortigas, Manila, Mandaluyong and in the future Magnolia Complex in Quezon City.

RLC is the property arm of taipan John Gokongwei’s listed flagship firm JG Summit Holdings Inc., one of the country’s largest conglomerates with diverse interests in branded consumer food, agro-industrial and commodity food products, textile, telecommunications, petrochemicals, air transportation and financial services.