ALI retains top credit rating for P51-B bonds

Property giant Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) retained the highest credit grade for its outstanding bonds from the Philippine Rating Services Corp. (PhilRatings).

The local credit watcher said it maintained the issue credit rating of PRS Aaa for ALI’s P51 billion worth of outstanding bonds.

PRS Aaa is the highest credit rating on PhilRatings’ long-term issue credit rating scale.

Obligations rated PRS Aaa are of the highest quality with minimal credit risk. The obligor’s capacity to meet its financial commitment on the obligation is extremely strong.

The rating reflects several key considerations such as ALI’s sustained profitability and high cash reserves, sound capitalization and a well diversified portfolio.

PhilRatings cited ALI’s sizable and strategic landbank for future expansion, complemented by solid brand equity. As of the end of 2014, it had and bank of 8,639 hectares located in various growth centers across the country.

Also considered was the sustained healthy outlook for the real estate industry.

The local credit watcher based its assessment on available information and projections at the time the review was made.

ALI is one of the largest real estate conglomerates in the Philippines with projects ranging from high-end to affordable housing.

The company is also into traditional office, business process outsourcing office and shopping center leasing, hotel operations and construction.

After hitting its P10 billion net income goal in 2014, ALI is now looking to increase this further to P40 billion by 2020 by continuing its expansion in the residential sector while beefing up its recurring income (leasing) business.

“The company also further improved its leverage position and remained conservatively capitalized, with debt to equity ratio easing to 0.9x as of the end of September 2015,” PhilRatings said.