Robinsons Land steps up expansion plans

MANILA, Philippines - Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC) is stepping up its expansion this year with plans to roll out P8 to P10-billion worth of residential condominium projects as well as seven new shopping malls and two office buildings.

In a chance interview, RLC president Frederick Go said four of the seven new malls had already opened – Robinsons Place Malolos, its second shopping center in Bulacan; Robinsons Place Roxas in Capiz City, Robinsons Town Mall Malabon and Robinsons Place Butuan.

On the other hand, Robinsons Place Santiago in Isabela is slated for opening this week, Go said

Go said the last two malls will open in the fourth quarter of its fiscal year ending September this year.

The company’s shopping mall network will reach 39 by the end of September, increasing its leasable space by 18 percent.

For next year, RLC plans to boost its gross leasable area (GLA) by 155,000 square meters with the opening of three new malls and the expansion of two existing ones.  This will bring total mall GLA to 1.077 million sqm by end-September 2015.

The two office buildings – Cyber Alpha and Cyber Beta – are expected to be completed soon which will boost the group’s office GLA by 80,000 sqm.

RLC is building its first office tower in the Bridgetown Business Park, a P30-billion mixed-use development located on a two-hectare property in Libis, Quezon City. The first building will make available 35,000 sqm of GLA which should boost RLC’s office GLA by 13 percent to 308,000 upon completion in 2015.

For the first quarter of its fiscal year ending September this year, RLC saw its earnings drop 13.4 percent to P1.03 billion, largely due to a P316 million one-time write-off from the damages in its mall in Tacloban (P297 milion) and fire of Robinsons Galleria (P19 million). Excluding the write-offs, net profit would have risen by 13.2 percent to P1.35 billion.

Total real estate revenues reached P3.98 billion, up 19.3 percent from P3.34 billion in the same period a year ago.

The residential business saw a 38 percent growth in revenues to P1.7 billion while the commercial centers division pumped in P1.95 billion or 45 percent of total revenues, posting a 10.2 percent growth.

The office buildings group, meanwhile, contributed eight percent or P361.8 million of RLC’s aggregate revenues. The amount is slightly higher than the P358.5 million registered a year earlier.

The hotels division, on the other hand, chipped in P401.2 million of RLC’s total revenues, up 0.9 percent.