FLI 1st half profit up 19% to P1.525B

MANILA, Philippines - Gotianun-led Filinvest Land, Inc. posted a net income of P1.525 billion in the first half of the year, up 19 percent on robust sales and improved leasing operations.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, FLI said the increase was driven by a 24 percent rise in total revenues to P5.21 billion. Real estate sales grew 29 percent to P3.84 billion, while rental income generated from Festival Supermall, PBCom Tower and Northgate Cyberzone in Filinvest Corporate City, Alabang, went up 16 percent to P854 million.

 Sales take-up grew 21 percent to P6.89 billion. In the second quarter, FLI launched P4.5 billion worth of projects, including two new ones in Havila, Rizal namely Primrose Townhomes and The Enclave at Highlands Pointe, as well as additional phases in existing subdivisions and mid-rise buildings (MRBs) Capri Oasis and Sorrento Oasis in Pasig, and San Remo Oasis in Cebu.

FLI has set a P15-billion capital spending this year, 25 percent higher than what it spent in 2011.   Bulk of the budget will go to the construction of the various residential projects covering all market segments. New projects targeted for launch this year include a condotel at Timberland Heights and two new mid-rise building (MRB) projects within Metro Manila.

Around P2.5 billion of the total capex will be used to beef up office and retail space This is in line with the group’s target of doubling the gross leasable area of its BPO office buildings by 2015 from the end-2011 level.

At Northgate Cyberzone, the construction of Filinvest Building Alabang is in full swing while construction of Plaz@ E commenced last month. Two more office buildings are targeted to break ground before year-end, which when completed will bring to 16 the number of BPO office buildings at Northgate Cyberzone.

For its joint venture with the government which the company won in March this year, construction of first BPO building which will have a GLA of over 19,000 square meters has started. When completed, the project called Filinvest Cebu Cyberzone is estimated to have a total of four buildings with a GLA of over 100,000 square meters.

FLI said its Filinvest Building along EDSA, Mandaluyong City, has been completed and has been turned over to the tenant for fit-out. The company will start generating revenues from the building in December this year.

For its retail portfolio, FLI is expanding the Festival Supermall at Filinvest Corporate City as well as developing the first phase of Il Corso lifestyle strip of Citta di Mare in the South Road Properties in Cebu. These two projects will increase the GLA of FLI’s retail portfolio by 68 percent in 2015 from the end-2011 level.