Ayala Land expects recovery to start in second half

LISTED property developer Ayala Land, Inc. is expecting to recover by the second half of the year and is preparing P100-billion worth of residential products in the pipeline.

“With the steady rollout of our ambitious national vaccination program, of which the Ayala Group and especially Ayala Land would play a critical role, I believe that we can start to show signs of recovery by the second half of this year,” Ayala Land Chairman Fernando Zobel de Ayala said at the virtual stockholders’ meeting on Wednesday morning.

However, the company believes it will take around two to three years to return to pre-pandemic levels.

“To set this recovery in motion, we allocated P88 billion in capital expenditures (capex) and P100-billion worth of residential products for launch in 2021,” Bernard Vincent O. Dy, president and chief executive officer of Ayala Land, said.

Around 44% of the company’s capex will be used for residential projects, some 26% for land acquisition, and 13% for estate development. The balance will be allocated for hotels and resorts, offices, malls, among others.

For residential products slated to launch this year, around 46% of the projects will be located in Metro Manila. The rest will be launched in Central and South Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

“We are working towards a v-shaped recovery and I am confident that we have the institutional capability, required resources, and a strong balance sheet to achieve this objective,” Mr. Dy said.

The company currently has 30 estates across the Philippines and over 12,000 hectares of land in its land bank.

Meanwhile, the company’s logistics and warehousing business subsidiary AyalaLand Logistics Holdings Corp. is seeking to further expand its national footprint.

“We aim to be present in 10 key areas across the country, grow our warehouse [gross] leasable area to 500,000 square meters, and create new business platforms by the year 2025,” AyalaLand Logistics President and Chief Executive Officer Maria Rowena M. Tomeldan said during an online briefing on Wednesday afternoon.

The company is said to be present in five areas as of now. It also recently diversified its product offerings through the acquisition of a cold storage facility in Laguna Technopark.

Ayala Land shares at the stock exchange declined by 0.15% or P0.05 to close at P33 each on Wednesday, while stocks of AyalaLand Logistics improved by 1.47% to P3.46 apiece from P3.41. — Keren Concepcion G. Valmonte