Robinsons Land lists shares for rights offer

Property developer Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC) on Friday listed P13.6 billion worth of shares on the local bourse to cover the two-for-one offer to shareholders as of mid-April. RLC director, president and chief operating officer Frederick Go said the rights offering, totaling 1.364 billion shares, was oversubscribed with a number of local and foreign investors taking additional rights on top of their entitled shares. Proceeds for the offering will be spent on buying new sites, building new malls and office buildings in key cities, and expanding the company’s value hotel chain gohotels.ph. At the sidelines of the listing ceremony on the Philippine Stock Exchange, Go told reporters at least half of the offering proceeds are for land acquisition, especially for more sites in the provinces. "The intention is to deploy capital as soon as possible so we can generate cash flow and income for the company," he said. One particular development in the pipeline, Go said, is the construction of a 200-room hotel in its five-hectare property in Mactan Island, Cebu, also the site of AmiSa — a prime leisure estate it is developing. In talks with hotel brands Go said the company is currently in talks with international hotel brands to operate the hotel in Mactan. In case none of the deals materialize, the hotel will be part of the company's "Summit" brand, he added. "Currently, we have Summit Ridge in Tagaytay, and Cebu Midtown Hotel in Cebu, which is currently undergoing massive renovation," he said. Go, however, disclosed that the gohotels.ph business is at a standstill at the moment, while a franchisee is looking into opening 20 of such hotels in the next five years. "We want to do more than 10 [branches], but the intention of the company is [for the gohotels.ph branches] to number at least 30 in the next five years," he said. RLC's hotel business accounts for at least 10 percent of the property operations, or the same contribution as its office buildings division. At 50 percent, however, shopping malls dominates RLC's business. Soon, Go said its office buildings division will outpace RLC’s other divisions with the rapid sale of office spaces to business process outsourcing companies. RLC said its net income rose almost 17 percent to P1.01 billion in the first three months of its fiscal year ending December as revenues increased almost as fifth to P3.18 billion. — VS, GMA News