Megaworld Corp., the property arm of billionaire Andrew Tan, registered a net income of P2.9 billion in the first quarter, up 11 percent from P2.6 billion recorded in the same period last year.
Consolidated revenues, including those of subsidiary brands, rose 5 percent to P12 billion from P11.5 billion in the same period last year.
Megaworld said in a disclosure to the stock exchange residential revenues, mostly from its inventory of condominiums and villages across the country, remained steady and continued to contribute around 70 percent to revenue pie.
Rental income expanded to a record P2.9 billion in January to March, up 26 percent from last year’s P2.3-billion. Recurring income, which comes from office and commercial and mall rentals, contributed around 24 percent of the quarterly revenues.
Hotel revenues grew 23 percent in the first quarter to P335 million from P271 million in the same period last year as the company expanded its homegrown hotel brands, Richmonde and Belmont, in Iloilo City and Pasay City, respectively.
“Our long-term goal is to strengthen our recurring income base while we maintain our leadership in residential developments. We already have a solid landbanking in place. All we have to do is to maximize the use of these lands to further expand our presence especially in key growth areas in the provinces,” Megaworld treasurer Francis Canuto said.
The property group is set to launch 20 residential projects in various existing township developments in 2017. These projects are expected to generate sales of around P31.2 billion.
“We are also very keen about prospects for tourism. This is a big opportunity for us. We hope to support the government’s tourism programs by building more tourism-related developments such as hotels,” said Canuto.
Megaworld opened its first Savoy Hotel, another homegrown brand, in Boracay Newcoast in April.
Megaworld owns and operates a total of around 1,500 hotel rooms across various brands.
“We now have 22 large-scale townships and communities all over the Philippines so there is definitely a lot of work to be done. Nonetheless, we are excited because most of these are actually outside of Metro Manila. This fits perfectly with the government’s planned infrastructure renaissance,” Canuto said.