MREIT Inc., the real estate investment trust company of Megaworld Corp., said over the weekend it remains on track with its commitment to acquire P20-billion worth of commercial assets this year.
MREIT said it would infuse another P15-billion worth of assets into the company over the next few quarters following the P5.3-billion property-for-share swap agreement with Megaworld.
The company is in talks with Megaworld over the additional asset infusion.
“For our next infusion, we are already considering properties from townships in key growth areas outside of Metro Manila where MREIT does not have a presence yet. This will further diversify our portfolio and allow us to tap into other growth centers around the country,” said MREIT president and chief executive Kevin Tan.
Tan said during the company’s annual shareholders meeting Friday the acquisition of additional office assets is in line with the company’s commitment to maximize shareholder value by increasing revenue generation from its portfolio, improving operational efficiency and accelerating acquisition plans.
“In line with our vision, we prepared a roadmap that calls for the expansion of MREIT’s property portfolio to one million square meters before the end of the decade. Given our access to Megaworld’s extensive office portfolio amounting to 1.4 million square meters, we believe that this is achievable,” Tan said.
Tan said MREIT plans to declare dividends equivalent to P1 per share in 2022, which is 6 percent higher than originally contemplated in the REIT plan.
The company’s portfolio included 14 prime, Grade A buildings that collectively span 280,000 square meters of gross leasable area as of end-2021.
Once the pending acquisitions are completed, MREIT’s portfolio will cover 18 office properties with total portfolio value of P78.5 billion, up 34 percent from P58.5 billion.
MREIT, which aims to be one of the largest REITs in Southeast Asia, aims to have a portfolio with 500,000 sq. m. of GLA by 2024 and 1 million sq. m. of GLA by 2030.