Megaworld buys former race track lot

Megaworld Corp., the property development arm of businessman andrew Tan, on wednesday said it has signed a memorandum of agreement with Manila Jockey Club Inc. (MJC) to purchase some 2.21-hectares of a former horse race track property in Santa Cruz, Manila.

The property, which now forms part of the historic 16-hectare San lazaro Tourism and Business Park in the Manila, is seen to further boost Megaworld’s presence in the City of Manila.

“Currently, our big projects in the City of Manila are concentrated in Binondo district, particularly within our lucky Chinatown project where we have a lifestyle mall, condominium towers, a cultural museum and a hotel. when we finalize the purchase of this land in San lazaro, this will surely be part of our township portfolio expansion in Metro Manila,” Kevin andrew l. Tan, the company’s executive vice president, said.

Megaworld did not state its plans for the property.

In a separate disclosure by MJC, it said Megaworld bought the property for P1.88 billion.

“The definitive sale agreements shall be executed upon the submission of closing documents to the satisfaction of buyer,” it said.

Megaworld currently has around 300 hectares of land bank across Metro Manila covering nine integrated urban townships and lifestyle estates in Quezon City, Taguig City, Pasay City, Parañaque City, las Piñas City, Pasig City and Manila.

In total, the company has close to 5,000 hectares of land bank across the Philippines.

For the nine months of 2021, Megaworld said income grew 6 percent to P8.6 billion from last year’s P8.1 billion, as its recovery only started in the third quarter.

The company said consolidated revenues for the period rose 10 percent to P36.9 billion from the previous year’s P33.4 billion.

For the July to September quarter, the company said its income rose 46 percent to P3.3 billion from P2.2 billion last year.

Consolidated revenues during the quarter rose by half to P14.5 billion from last year’s P9.6 billion, the company said.

real estate sales doubled during the quarter to P9.6 billion from last year’s P4.7 billion, mainly due to the expansion in construction activities.

This brings the company’s real estate sales for the nine month period to P23.1 billion, up by 21 percent from last year’s P19.1 billion.

reservation sales for the quarter came in at P17.1 billion, a 35 percent increase year-on-year.

during the quarter, Megaworld launched its first eco-tourism township, the expansive 462-hectare Paragua Coastown in San Vicente, Palawan.