Filinvest allocates P44 B capex for 2016

MANILA, Philippines – Gotianun-led Filinvest Development Corp. (FDC) has raised its capital expenditures budget by 47 percent to P44 billion this year from P30 billion last year, officials said on Friday. 

More than half of the amount would be allocated for real estate while some 25 percent would be used to beef up its power business. The rest will go to its banking and hotels business, said FDC president and CEO Josephine Gotianun-Yap.

FDC is also eyeing to tap a corporate loan of P2 to P4 billion this year for the expansion of its hotel business.

The company expects to hit its goal of having 5,000 hotel rooms owned or managed by 2020 as the group targets to pour in more investments in the country’s tourism sector.

It ended 2015 with 1,062 hotel rooms and is planning to exceed the 3,000-mark this year with the group’s takeover of the Mimosa leisure estate in Clark, Pampanga.

Other hotel projects in the pipeline include the 164-room hotel under the “Quest” brand in Tagaytay and another 180-room “Quest” hotel in Dumaguete.

In Cubao, Quezon City, the group is introducing a new 220-room lifestyle hotel brand called Canvas.

The group also expects to open this year a 192-room luxury hotel on Boracay island, which will be the third under the Crimson hospitality brand after the first Crimson hotel in Mactan and the second Crimson hotel opened in Alabang.

This year would indeed see a stronger conglomerate, Gotianun-Yap said during the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting last week as it starts commissioning the first unit of its 3 x 135 megawatt coal plant in Misamis Oriental in the second quarter of 2016.

The commissioning of the remaining two units would follow by September this year.

Last year, the company generated revenues of P49.38 billion, with the bulk of revenues or 43 percent contributed by Filinvest Land Inc. and Filinvest Alabang Inc.

Its banking arm Eastwest Bank contributed 37 percent of revenues while FDC Utilities Inc. (FDCUI), the group’s power subsidiary, made its first significant contribution with 13 percent.

The balance came from the company’s sugar and hotel businesses.

The company posted a net income of P7 billion last year, 13 percent higher than the previous year.

 In the last three years, Gotianun-Yap said the company has focused on major investments as it amplified its portfolio in growth areas of the economy.