JG Summit raises $750M from offshore debt market

Business Mirror

A unit of the Gokongwei’s JG Summit Holdings Inc. on Thursday raised $750 million (around P30 billion) from 10-year notes, which will be used for general funding purpose of one of the country’s top conglomerates.

 The company said in a disclosure that JG Summit’s offshore unit JGSH Philippines Ltd. has priced its 10-year dollar-denominated debt at a fixed annual rate of 4.375 percent.

Bach Johann Sebastian, senior vice president for corporate planning and chief strategist at JG Summit, said the deal was upsized from the original issue size of $500 million with order book reaching $6.6 billion.

“Overall demand for Philippine corporate bonds is very strong. It was just a good time to do that transaction,” said Sebastian, adding that the deal was the country’s largest overseas corporate debt issuance.

The said issuance was the largest offered by a Philippine company in the offshore debt market. 

“The company has agreed to act as guarantor for the notes offering,” JG Summit said in its disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

The company earlier said that Citigroup Global Markets Ltd., Credit Suisse Securities (Europe) Ltd. and Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. Ltd acted as joint bookrunners and joint lead managers for the unrated notes.

Last week port operator International Container Terminal Services Inc. also launched a $750-million debt issuance program overseas, although it only raised $300 million in the exercise.

JG Summit—which operates airline Cebu Pacific airline, operates hotels and malls and produces snack food and beverages in some countries in Asia—posted a net income of P10.76 billion for the first three quarters of 2012, a 36-percent increase from its profit in the previous year.

The increase in net income was partly due to the P1-billion income received from Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. from the sale of the telecom arm that previously operates the Sun Cellular brand.

The company earlier said it plans to expand its core businesses in food and beverage, airline, banking, petrochemicals and property within the year.

For latest update on real estate development and its RA 9646, the Real Estate Service Act of 2009, visit www.ra9646.com.ph.

Robinsons Land unit plans more hotels

Businessworld - THE BUDGET hotel brand of Robinsons Land Corp., GoHotels.ph (Go Hotels), is set to open three new branches this year, slightly less than those it launched in 2012, reflective of the company’s “conservative” outlook on the country’s tourism sector, an official of the Gokongwei-led listed company said late last week.

“For 2013: one in Iloilo, and two in Metro Manila -- Ortigas and Otis, Manila,” Roseann C. Villegas, Robinsons Land director for corporate public relations, said in a text message last Friday when asked about expansion plans of Go Hotels this year.

This is one hotel less than what the brand launched last year.

“We opened four hotels in 2012: Palawan, Tacloban, Dumaguete, and Bacolod. Nevertheless, Go Hotels will be ‘bullish but conservative,’ considering that there are a lot of other new hotels also coming up,” Ms. Villegas explained.

Go Hotels is an “essential service hotel”: which keeps costs low by allowing customers to book early, and by charging for lodging options that budget-conscious travelers may opt out on, Go Hotels’ Web site read.

Go Hotels has five branches nationwide -- Manila, Palawan, Dumaguete, Tacloban, and Bacolod -- and plans to grow its network to 30 hotels in the next five years.

Colliers International Philippines, a real estate services firm, noted in a December 2012 white paper, titled: “Top 5 Tourists’ Consideration About The Philippines,” that “hotels” ranked fourth among concerns, after “flights, fares, terminals,” “tourist attractions,” and “islands, beaches, resorts,” which came in first, second and third, respectively, and ahead of “security, safety,” which came in fifth, based on an online survey.

“Developers have been banking on increasing tourist arrival levels to justify new hotel development. In Metro Manila alone, there will be roughly 40 new hotels from 2012 to 2016. This reflects a room stock increase of over 16,000 units, more than double than the total stock as of end-2011,” Colliers International Philippines said.

Go Hotels is expected to ride on a wave of demand for “limited service” hotels, which are seen to attract more budget travelers.

“Towards the end of last year, the average length of stay for the economy hotel segment further dropped to less than two nights.

Moreover, the occupancy rate has been slightly below 60% in the last two years. Despite the lackluster performance, we find this as a potential growth opportunity for small-scale hotel developers particularly through the ‘limited service’ or ‘basic service’ hotel formats. This concept has already been introduced by major budget hotel chains such as Tune Hotels and Go Hotels,” the white paper read.

Tune Hotels, which has four branches in Manila, Cebu, Angeles City, and Makati City, is a “limited service” affiliate of Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia Bhd.

“We find this appealing to budget travelers who consider visiting the Philippines expensive. Consequently, this may encourage travelers to lengthen their stay in the long term,” Colliers International Philippines added.

For latest update on real estate development and its RA 9646, the Real Estate Service Act of 2009, visit www.ra9646.com.ph.

Robinsons Land profit grows to P4.2 billion

Businessworld - PROPERTY DEVELOPER Robinsons Land Corp. grew its net income by nearly 7% annually in its fiscal year ending September 2012, driven by higher revenues from its commercial, office, and hotel units despite a slowdown in the residential segment, the Gokongwei-led company said in a regulatory filing yesterday.

The firm posted a net income of P4.24 billion, up 6.8% from P3.97 billion the previous fiscal year, according to its financial report.

This is slightly lower, however, than the 10.28% growth notched in 2011 coming from a P3.6-billion net income in 2010.

Total revenues in 2012, drawn from real estate and hotel operations, climbed 5.54% annually to P13.52 billion from P12.81 billion, while costs expanded by 13.33% to P7.14 billion from P6.30 billion.

Robinsons Land’s Commercial Centers Division, whose rentals accounted for bulk of the listed firm’s revenues, grew its own revenues by 11.63% to P6.43 billion from P5.76 billion.

“Significant rental increment was contributed by the new malls opened in fiscal year 2012,” Robinsons Land said, referring to Robinsons Place Pangasinan, Robinsons Place Palawan, and Robinsons Magnolia, which all opened last year.

Robinsons Land’s Office Buildings Division posted revenues of P1.40 billion, 5.26% from P1.33 billion, due to new office space made for lease at Robinsons Cybergate Tower 3 and completion of Cybergate Plaza, both in Mandaluyong City near Robinsons Forum-Pioneer.

The company’s newest segment, the Hotels Division, increased its revenues by 14.05% to P1.38 billion from P1.21 billion on higher occupancy rates at Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria and Holiday Inn Manila Galleria in Ortigas Center, higher hotel revenues at Summit Circle in Tagaytay City, and four new GoHotels.ph (Palawan, Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental, and Leyte) that opened last year. As of end-September, the Hotels Division had an average occupancy rate of 70%, Robinsons Land said.

The Residential Division, however, saw revenues dip by 4.66% to P4.30 billion from P4.51 billion due to lower project completion rates.

Robinsons Land’s residential brands are composed of Robinsons Luxuria, Robinsons Residences, Robinsons Communities, and Robinsons Homes.

For fiscal year 2013, Robinsons Land expects to spend P13 billion in capital expenditures, 36.84% higher than the P9.5 billion spent last year, to fund land banking and construction.

“These will be funded through cash from operations and borrowings.

Thirty-three percent is allocated for residential condos and housing units, while 67% will be spent for malls, office buildings and hotels,” Robinsons Land.

Robinsons Land was incorporated in 1980 as the property arm of listed conglomerate JG Summit Holdings, Inc. As of end-September, the company operated 32 shopping malls, 34 residential projects, eight office buildings, and nine hotels.

Robinsons Land and its subsidiaries are engaged in the business of selling, acquiring, constructing, developing, leasing and disposing of real properties such as land, buildings, shopping malls, commercial centers and housing projects, hotels and mixed-use property projects.

Shares of Robinsons Land rose by 55 centavos or 2.58% to P21.90 apiece yesterday from P21.35 last Monday. 

For more details on Robinsons Land projects, you may contact Reby Ramirez @ 0919.699.3572 / 0916.4044.555 / 0922.883.9308 / 02-4044-534 or e-mail at reby_ramirez@yahoo.com

For latest update on real estate development and its RA 9646, the Real Estate Service Act of 2009, visit www.ra9646.com.ph.

Robinsons Land cited as best managed

Inquirer (January 14, 2013) - After playing second fiddle to bigger and older real estate firms for the past two decades, Robinsons Land Corp. is moving up in the corporate scene.

The property arm of billionaire John Gokongwei emerged as the top choice of money managers from major investment houses in a Euromoney magazine poll of the best-managed companies in Asia.

Robinsons Land president Frederick Go, a nephew of Gokongwei, said he and his team were “thrilled” that their efforts to mold the company into the country’s premier real estate firm did not escape stock analysts’ attention.

“We’ve been playing behind the shadows of more established players in the real estate industry since we began in the 1990s with our first project. Property development is also not the bread and butter of the JG Summit group, which is more known for its industrial roots. This award validates our efforts to excel in our field and in our group,” said Go in a phone interview.

Euromoney’s annual company ranking is based on last year’s survey of 130 leading equity analysts at the largest investment banks and research houses in the Asia Pacific region.

A total of 207 companies were nominated, with analysts grading them according to management accessibility, accounting transparency and corporate governance procedures, among other yardsticks.
Robinsons Land was cited by Euromoney for its leading role in promoting transparent communication to investors with its “clear strategy and good visibility.”

Analysts also noted that Robinsons Land’s senior management “is open to all questions and requests from investors and analysts regarding the company’s performance and external relations are properly managed.”
“We pride ourselves in being transparent to our stockholders as much as possible because we are proud of what we do,” Go said.

With its portfolio of 32 malls, eight office buildings, nine hotels, 59 residential condominiums and 32 housing subdivisions, Robinsons Land has established a track record of being a trusted brand with its successful project launches and on-time completion, according to Go.

Market investors made Robinsons Land the highest gainer among stocks in the Philippine Stock Exchange index, with an 83.63 percent gain in its share price from Jan. 2 to Dec. 28, 2012
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Robinsons Land profit rose 10 percent to P3.36 billion on the back of a P10.56-billion revenue that also grew 10 percent in the first nine months, ending June 2012. Half of its revenue came from shopping malls (P5.17 billion) and  nearly a third came from residential projects (P3.31 billion).

This is the 14th annual ranking of the best-managed and -governed companies in Asia that Euromoney has published and is seen as the benchmark survey of the opinions of equity analysts in the region.

Clive Horwood, editor of Euromoney magazine, said: “Asia’s best-managed companies are taking advantage of their country’s world-beating growth rates to focus on integration and expansion while peers from other parts of the world are distracted by the tough global environment.

For more details on Robinsons Land projects, you may contact Reby Ramirez @ 0919.699.3572 / 0916.4044.555 / 0922.883.9308 / 02-4044-534 or e-mail at reby_ramirez@yahoo.com

For latest update on real estate development and its RA 9646, the Real Estate Service Act of 2009, visit www.ra9646.com.ph.