Ayala Land pushes all units to tweak business strategies

Property developer Ayala Land Inc. on Wednesday said it is pushing its business units to adjust their strategies and to continue strengthening their market position as the pandemic has ushered in changes in one of the hardest-hit economic sectors.

“We believe this health crisis has inevitably caused temporary and permanent shifts in consumer behavior, affecting our business lines in numerous ways. Each business unit is carefully adjusting their strategies and practices to strengthen our market position and reinvent some

of our business models to adapt to the new environment,” Bernard Vincent O. Dy, the company’s president and CEO said during the company’s stockholders’ meeting.

Dy said the company is still expecting a “V-shape” recovery starting this year, although he said it could take 2 to 3 years for it to fully recover what it lost during the pandemic, or just match its 2019 performance.

The company said it is experiencing construction delays due to insufficient manpower and lower productivity due to physical distancing and work stoppages, but it is following government health protocols and working out a system to efficiently carry out a development project.

Ayala Land will spend some P88 billion in capital expenditures (capex) during the year, and will launch residential projects worth some P100 billion. This is higher than last year’s P63.7 billion in revised capex mainly for the completion of residential and commercial leasing assets, with a portion spent on land acquisition and development of estates.

Of this year’s spending, some P38.8 billion worth of projects will be for Avida Land, P37 billion for

Alveo Land, P17.2 billion for Amaia Land, P12 billion for Ayala Land Premiere and P300 million for Bellavita.

Some 62 percent of these projects are for high-rise buildings, 37 percent are for horizontal and 1 percent for the leisure.

About half of its projects are still in Metro Manila and the rest are scattered in several parts of the country.

Meanwhile, the company’s stockholders have approved the company’s planned merger with Cebu Holdings Inc., Asian I-office Properties Inc., Arca South Commercial Ventures Corp. and Central Block Developers Inc. with Ayala Land as the surviving entity.

Dy said the move will effect efficiencies in the company as it will simplify its work structure and it can realize savings in terms of administrative cost.

“The merger streamlines operations, allows the management to work efficiently,” he said.