Megaworld beefs up capex, eyes 10-percent income rise

Seeing a 10-percent rise in its annual profits for 2010, publicly listed property developer Megaworld Corp. has raised its capital expenditures as it launches more residential and commercial projects in Metro Manila. The Andrew Tan-led firm said it has raised its capex to P17 billion, up from about P11 billion in 2009. Its 2009 earnings reached P4.06 billion, seven percent higher than the preceding year. We have a number of projects that we’ve put together and bulk of the earnings from those will come starting 2011. But for this year, we’re looking to have a 10 percent increase in net profits," company Executive Director Kingson Sian said on Friday. “I think the property sector, and Megaworld in particular, will continue to grow this year," he said. Sian said Megaworld plans to launch seven projects this year in the metropolis. The company still has 230 hectares of unused land which could translate to about a million square meters of rentable office space, which indicates room for growth that could keep the company busy for the next ten to 15 years, Sian said. “Even without buying any land, we can be okay," he added. The company is also eyeing the issuance of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT) to fund future projects, to be backed by around 450,000 square meters of office space. Sian said, however, that the company would wait for results in the first REIT issuances of other real estate firms Ayala Land, Inc. and SM Development Corp. later this year. “We want to see how the first REIT issuances will perform and what kind of valuations the bigger companies will get. - GMANews.TV