Filinvest Land earnings jump 25% to P934M

MANILA, Philippines - Growth in real estate sales and leasing income carried Gotianun-led property firm Filinvest Land Inc. (FLI) to a double-digit profit increase in the first quarter.

In a disclosure, FLI announced that its net earnings jumped 25 percent to P934 million from P748 million a year ago.

“The growth in real estate sales and rental income fueled the 15-percent increase in total revenues to P3.157 billion from P2.735 billion in the same period,” FLI said.

Specifically, real estate sales, the company’s major contributor, rose a fifth to P2.44 billion compared with P2.03 billion last year

Rental income, which were derived from FLI’s lease of office buildings and shopping malls, grew 14 percent to P467 million.

“The hike in real estate sales was driven by higher reservation sales, as well as the completion of more projects that were already sold,” the property firm said.

In the first quarter, FLI recognized revenues given the completion of five more buildings in four mid-rise building developments.

FLI said at least eight more buildings are expected to be completed until the end of the year.

In the first three months, two new projects and five additional phases of existing projects with an estimated sales value of P4.1 billion were launched.

FLI said it is targeting to launch P18 billion worth of projects this year through 12 new projects and additional phases of existing projects.

Rental income, for its part, increased because of “sustained high occupancy rates in its business process outsourcing office building portfolio, as well as higher lease rates,” FLI said.

At the Northgate Cyberzone project, all 12 operational buildings are fully leased out.

“Four more office buildings are under construction, with Plaz@ E scheduled for completion in late 2013, the twin buildings of Filinvest Two and Filinvest Three within 2014, and tower 1 Filinvest Cebu Cyberzone in 2013,” it added.

This will allow FLI to roughly double the leasing portfolio, which includes office space, to 550,00 square meters (sqm) by 2015 from 271,000 sqm in end-2010.