ALI income soars 26% to P14.8 B in 2014

MANILA, Philippines - Property powerhouse Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) built up its earnings by a little over a quarter last year, staying on track with its vision to grow its income by at least 20 percent annually until 2020.

ALI said its net income last year jumped 26 percent to P14.8 billion from P11.7 billion in 2013 as a result of the strong performance of its property development and commercial operations.

The company’s consolidated revenues likewise improved 17 percent year-on-year to P95.2 billion.

 “We are pleased with the performance of each of our business lines in 2014 and their contributions to our overall growth,” said ALI president and chief executive officer Bernard Vincent Dy.

In the fourth quarter alone, ALI said profits grew 28 percent to P4.01 billion from P3.14 billion during the same period last year.

Revenues from the residential segment in 2014 reached P55.9 billion, 26 percent higher than in 2013, driven by strong bookings and project completion across all residential brands.

Market acceptance remained robust as the company posted an 11 percent increase in sales take-up against the previous year, ALI said.

“Sales across our various residential brands continue to be good, and we thank our customers for their continued trust,” Dy said.

Total revenues from commercial leasing, which includes the company’s shopping centers and office leasing as well as hotels and resorts operations, stood at P21.2 billion last year, 18 percent better than the P18 billion recorded in the same period last year.

“Moving forward, we will continue to introduce new residential projects and scale-up our commercial leasing operations in support of our 2020 vision,” Dy said.

ALI has allotted P100 billion for capital expenditures this year primarily for the completion of ongoing developments and launches of new residential and leasing projects which will help sustain the company’s growth trajectory in the coming years.

Among its plans is the development of the Bacolod Capitol project which will kick-off with the groundbreaking of the residential, retail, office and hotel components of the estate.

ALI said it would also start the development of the 11-hectare mixed-use project in Balintawak, Quezon City which will consist of residential developments, a mall and a hospital.

For its mall development, Dy said ALI would complete seven new medium- sized shopping centers this year that will have total gross leasable area (GLA) of 147,000 square meters while new malls expected to offer 497,000 square meters of leasable space will also be launched.