AYALA Land Inc. said it is close to matching its pre-COVID-19 pandemic spending with its planned P100 billion capital expenditure this year.
“We peaked at about P108 billion so we’re almost there,” said Augusto Bengzon, Ayala Land chief finance officer.
“In terms of the activity on the ground, by many metrics, we’ve exceeded pre-pandemic.
Construction activity-wise, that will follow our launches as well as the leasing pipeline that we’ve set out for ourselves,” Bengzon added.
The company closed the first half of the year with profits of P13.1 billion, up 15 percent, as revenues grew by 28 percent to P84.3 billion.
Anna Ma. Margarita Bautista-Dy, Ayala Land chief executive officer, said the company is hitting growth targets across all business lines and market segments, noting better than expected residential sales.
The company is currently focused on developing its 11,300 hectares of landbank over the next several years to ramp up activity further.
Bengzon said Ayala Land is looking to utilize about 800 hectares each year of the company’s landbank.
“We would be launching new districts within existing estates (to make) most out of the estates that we have, and in the process, create more value in our existing estates,” added Dy.
Ayala Land is looking to launch a total of P85 billion worth of projects this year, down from the P115 billion target earlier this year, as part of efforts to control inventory down to a pre-pandemic 16 month-equivalent of sales from the current 19 months.
About 70 percent of the launches will cater to the “premium” segment of the market or those that have monthly income of at least P300,000 a month, the company said.
Ayala Land, meanwhile, is looking to spend P7 billion to beef up its hospitality-based businesses in the next two to three years, building 4,000 keys for the period.
