Property developer Robinsons Land Corp. said Tuesday its board of directors approved the extension of its P3-billion share buyback program amid continued market volatility.
RLC said in a stock exchange filing the share buyback program would not affect any of the company’s prospective and existing projects and investments.
“The objectives of the share buy-back program are to enhance the shareholder value and to manifest confidence in the corporation’s value and prospects through the repurchase of the commons shares of the company,” RLC said.
This will be third extension of the company’s share buyback program, bringing RLC’s total buyback program to P9 billion.
The board of RLC approved in November 2021 the creation and implementation of a P3-billion share repurchase program. This was extended in November 2022.
It said that from Nov. 4, 2021 to Mar. 19, 2023, the property firm also bought back 238.134 million common shares worth P4.072 billion.
A company usually conducts a share buyback because it believes that its share price is undervalued and that the market discounted its shares too steeply.
RLC said the new share buy-back program would not involve any active and widespread solicitation from the stockholders and would be implemented in the open market through the trading facilities of the Philippine Stock Exchange.
The share price of RLC on Monday hit a 52-week low of P13.34, down 11 percent from end-December close of P15.
Share prices of other property firms also traded lower because of the high interest-rate environment, which is making residential projects more expensive for investors to finance.
The high inflation rate is also seen to affect consumer spending, which could hurt the property sector’s retail and leasing businesses.