Bullish Vista Land aims to reach ‘at least P10-B’ earnings by 2018

VISTA LAND & Lifescapes, Inc. will grow earnings by double digits through 2018 anchored on the recovery of residential sales to overseas Filipinos and expansion of its commercial business, prompting the Villar-led real estate firm to upgrade its target for project launches for the second time this year.

In a briefing on Monday, Vista Land President Manuel Paolo A. Villar said the integrated property developer will see an 11% growth in bottom line this year to P9 billion and register “at least P10 billion” in net profit by 2018 “if things progress at this rate” — a sign of heightened optimism for the CEO who rarely issues profit guidance to the media.

“It’s a broad story. Sales is good in horizontal and vertical. From what we see, there’s some bullishness in attitude towards real estate,” said Mr. Villar.

In the first half, net income rose 15% to P4.5 billion from P3.9 billion in the same period last year. Consolidated revenues went up 16% to P18.2 billion during the January to June period from P15.7 billion.

Real estate revenues jumped by an annual 14% to P14.4 billion, while leasing revenues climbed 37% to P2.9 billion from P2.1 billion.

Vista Land is launching as much as P70 billion worth of projects this year, nearly three times the value of total launches in the previous year which stood at P26.2 billion.

In the first half, the property company launched 25 projects — 21 of which are in the low and affordable segments while four are condominiums — worth P23.3 billion in the first semester, nearly matching the value of launches for the entire 2016.

“We’re on track to hit P60 billion and we might even go to P70 billion this year,” Mr. Villar said, noting that most of the new launches will be residential projects priced below P4 million.

This is the second time that Vista Land increased the budget for project launches this year. Initially, the company originally targeted to roll out P30 billion worth of projects before increasing the estimate to P42 billion in June.

“We’re very excited about the residential business. We think the momentum will continue next year,” Mr. Villar said.

The recovery of the overseas Filipinos market, which historically accounts for 50-60% of total sales, and strong domestic sales translated to a 12% uptick in reservation sales to P32.3 billion. The full-year tally could reach P64 billion, Mr. Villar said.

For its commercial business, Vista Land is targeting to have one million square meters of leasable space by the end of the year.

Vista Land is now present in 125 cities and municipalities, moving closer to its target of expanding to 200 cities and municipalities in the near future.

Shares in Vista Land added four centavos or 0.69% to close at P5.81 each on Monday.