Property developer Ayala Land Inc. said Wednesday it will spend P88 billion in capital expenditures this year as it expects overall businesses to recover from pre-pandemic levels in two to three years.
Ayala Land president and chief executive Bernard Vincent Dy said in a press briefing the group planned to launch P100 billion worth of residential projects in 2021, up from P10.68 billion worth of launches in 2020.
“Our goal is to start a V-shaped recovery. But we think it will be a journey that will take two to three years to bring Ayala Land back to its 2019 performance as well as set the stage for growth,” Dy said.
Dy said the company was optimistic about the economy and the prospects of Ayala Land as the government continued to open the economy.
Ayala Land said net income dropped 74 percent in 2020 to P8.7 billion from P33.2 billion in 2019 as overall businesses were severely affected by the pandemic.
Consolidated revenues went down by 43 percent last year to P96.3 billion from P168.8 billion in 2019.
“There was no escaping the major disruption caused by the pandemic in 2020, but our company’s performance in the latter part of the year was encouraging and provides a baseline for our recovery plans moving forward,” Dy.
“In 2020, greater value was placed on maintaining a strong balance sheet to weather this crisis and prepare our company to resume our growth aspirations,” he said.
Meanwhile, AREIT Inc., the real estate investment trust of Ayala Land Inc., registered profits of P1.23 billion and revenues of P1.95 billion in 2020.
AREIT, which was listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange last year, said it closed 2020 with a strong balance sheet and a funding strategy in place to support growth.
As the first Philippine REIT, AREIT performed consistently, delivering dividends and growing its assets,” said AREIT president and chief executive Carol Mills said.
“Operations remained strong throughout the year. Business resilience, health and safety of all our building locators and service personnel were our focus areas as all our properties remained open throughout the pandemic,” Mills said.