Listed property developer Century Properties Group Inc. said Monday net income declined 21 percent in the first quarter to P290 million from P367.8 million in the same period last year.
Century Properties said in a disclosure to the stock exchange first-quarter revenues reached P2.77 billion, down by 2.6 percent from P2.8 billion a year ago.
The group’s affordable housing business and leasing portfolio contributed P173 million or 60 percent to total net income, compared to just P55 million or 14 percent last year.
It said net income contribution from urban vertical projects declined to just P111 million or 38 percent of the total net income from P324 million or 84-percent share last year.
“The lower net income in the first quarter of 2020 was not totally unexpected considering the three major shocks during the period: the Taal eruption in January, the coronavirus pandemic declaration in February and the enhanced community quarantine declared in March, coupled with the company’s beefing up its cash war chest,” said Century Properties chief finance officer and investor relations head Ponciano Carreon Jr.
“We managed to sustain the level of our revenues with a more impressive mix with the affordable housing business and leasing portfolio now contributing a combined revenue of P817 million or 29 percent of the pie compared with just P200 million or 13 percent of revenues for same period last year,” he said.
The company’s total assets reached P54.6 billion as of end-March 2020 while interest bearing liabilities went down by P1.4 billion at the end of first quarter, which resulted in healthier balance sheet.
“The strong 2019 performance and 1Q2020 balance sheet serve as strong foundations for the group to adopt needed structural and operational adjustments and business flexibility amidst the current economic disruptions. We are also taking advantage of the opportunity to be ready for another take-off. We expect our high-margin affordable housing and leasing revenues to further grow and boost our bottom-line margins,” Carreon said.
Meanwhile, the company launched efforts in the past two and half months to protect the welfare of employees, construction workers and other stakeholders and contributed to increase the country’s testing capacity for COVID-19 with the conversion of the Philippine Arena Sports Stadium in Bulacan into a mega testing facility with the Bases Conversion and Development Authority.
