ALI on track to achieve 2020 growth plan

Ayala Land Inc. (ALI), the property and mall developer of conglomerate Ayala Corp., is on track to achieving its 2020 growth plan on the back of a growth strategy equally divided between property development and leasing, its chief financial officer said in a forum on Saturday.

“We believe we’re on track to achieving our 2020 growth plan,” Augusto Bengzon told investors during a forum organized by COL Financial.

The plan is to grow the company’s net income by an average of 20 percent to reach P40 billion by 2020.

In 2016, net income grew to P20.9 billion, an increase of 19 percent.

Bengzon said to achieve the target, the company has come up with a sustained and balanced growth strategy.

Under the plan, 50 percent of the growth will come from property development — divided equally between horizontal and vertical projects, and 50 percent from leasing such as malls, office hotels and resorts.

A key component of the 2020 growth plan, he said is to triple ALI’s leasing assets with a focused completion of investment properties.

For the malls, ALI is targeting to grow its gross leasable area to 3.10 million square meters by 2020 from 1.66 million this year, while its office space is targeted to grow to 1.5 million square meters from 840,000 planned for 2017. These offices are headquarter type offices and BPOtype facilities.

Meanwhile, for its hotels and resorts, Bengzon said ALI plans to build a portfolio of 6,000 rooms by 2020 from a target of 2,000 rooms by the end of the year. These are comprised of SEDA Hotels, island resort and estates and other international brand formats.

ALI is investing P88 billion in capital expenditure to help it reach its growth plan, of which it has spent P41.6 billion as of the first half.

The company has launched the 200-hectare Evo City in Kawit, Cavite, envisioned to become the new central business district in the area.