Real estate investment trust RL Commercial REIT Inc. sees opportunity for further growth in the next three years as its sponsor and mother company, Robinsons Land Corp., infuses more assets into it.
With RLC having 1.4 million square meters (sqm) in leasable mall space, and 250,000 sqm in leasable office space yet to be infused into the REIT, RCR has more room for growth, Jericho Go, RCR president, said.
“So, logic basically says that there is still a good amount of space on the mall side that can be infused,” Go said at the company’s shareholders meeting Wednesday.
This is enough for RCR to deliver results that remain attractive to investors, Luis Limlingan, managing director at Regina Capital and Development Corp. said on Saturday, noting the REIT’s notable performance in the first quarter of the year.
“RCR delivered a notable performance, with net income surging 50 percent to P1.76 billion and revenues jumping 59 percent to P2.24 billion, thanks to strategic mall and office infusions,” he said.
A first quarter cash dividend of P0.1047 per share was declared, with an ex-date of May 19 and payment set for May 30, Limlingan said.
At present, just a third of the Gokongwei-led RLC has been infused into RCR. And the RLC assets are factored into RCR market price, allowing for discovery of company properties.
“So potentially RCR can move out of the assets of the sponsor board. Potential in the next three years, it will depend… it will depend on market conditions and other factors,” Go said.
“But what is important to note here in the same breath, RLC, the sponsor, is not just sitting idly by. It has made a commitment to grow mall by 50 percent and to grow offices by another 50 percent until 2030, on the 50th anniversary of the company. So there is a lot of opportunities existing today and in also moving forward in the future, in the next five years,” Go added.
RCR’s portfolio covers 17 office buildings and 12 malls across 18 key locations in the Philippines, with combined leasable space of 827,807 sqm.
Go said of the company’s total portfolio, 65 percent consists of office space, with the rest being mall spaces.
RCR has a blended occupancy rate of 96 percent, with a weighted average lease expiry (WALE) of 3.37 years.
Tenant mix is made up of business process outsourcing (BPO) tenants at 60 percent, retail tenants at 29 percent, traditional office tenants at 6 percent, and other tenants—food, amusement and others—5 percent.
Go said RCR continues to see locators from the Information Technology and Business Process Management (ITBPM) as its main tenants.
