Filinvest Dev’t Corp expanding hotel portfolio

MANILA, Philippines — Filinvest Development Corp. (FDC), the Gotianun family’s listed conglomerate, is expanding its hotel portfolio in the next three to four years.

The company has a pipeline of 2,600 additional keys in the planning and construction stages across 10 new hotels and expansion with a target of 5,000 keys by 2023. 

The new hotels will primarily be under FDC’s hospitality business brands, Crimson and Quest.

At present, the company has a portfolio of six hotels with 1,800 keys and two golf courses. Crimson hotels are in Mactan, Alabang and Boracay while QuestHotels are in Cebu, Clark and Tagaytay. 

FDC president Josephine Yap said FDC is allocating P38.9 billion in capital expenditure to its subsidiaries Filinvest Land Inc., Filinvest Alabang Inc. and Filinvest Hospitality Corp. for land acquisition and property development in 2019.  

This year, FDC is expected to allocate a significant portion of its property capital expenditure to projects and developments in the Clark corridor, including the Clark International Airport, Filinvest Mimosa+ Leisure City and the 64-hectare phase 1 of the group’s township development in New Clark City.

“Capital expenditure in 2019 is roughly equally allocated between the trading segment of the real estate business and the investment segment, which includes office, retail, hotel and logistics park developments,” she said.

Yap said that FDC’s strategy of monetizing its trading assets and growing its infrastructure portfolio have produced strong results with a 31 percent increase in consolidated net income to P13.4 billion in 2018.  

Income attributable to equity holders of FDC was P9.8 billion in 2018, a 48 percent increase over the previous year. FDC believes these results are in part due to the increase in investments in its rental properties and new businesses, comprised of hospitality and power, which together account for 41 percent of FDC’s net income.

The company’s power subsidiary, FDC Utilities Inc. (FDCUI), registered a net income of P2.1 billion. Its 3 x 135 MW clean coal power facility in Misamis Oriental started operations in 2016, augmenting supply in the Mindanao region.

EastWest Bank, the group’s banking subsidiary, meanwhile posted a net income of P4.5 billion in 2018. 

Consumer loans accounted for approximately 70 percent of its loan portfolio, maintaining EastWest Bank’s strong consumer focus.

FDC has investments in power, banking, property and infrastructure among others.