Geri income surges 50% in 2016

MANILA, Philippines - Global-Estates Resorts Inc.(GERI), the integrated leisure and tourism arm of Megaworld Corp., reported a 50 percent rise in its net income in 2016, driven by its residential business.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday, GERI said its net income last year jumped to P1 billion, up from P667 million the previous year.

GERI said it registered a net non-recurring gain of P82 million, 55 percent lower than last year’s P181 million.

“Excluding non-recurring gains, GERI’s consolidated revenues in 2016 amounted to P5.66 billion, up nine percent from P5.21 billion in the previous year,” GERI said.

The company attributed the growth to its core residential business, which contributed around 83 percent of total revenues.

“Real estate sales rose by six percent year-on-year to P4.4 billion from P4.1 billion in 2015,” GERI said.

In contrast, the company’s rental income soared 75 percent to P105 million in 2016 from P60 million in 2015.

GERI president Monica Salomon said the revenue growth was driven by the fast take-ups of its residential projects in Boracay, Iloilo and Tagaytay.

“As we launch more residential projects this year, we expect this uptrend to continue, and help us further surpass the P1-billion net income we achieved in 2016,” Salomon said.

At present, GERI has six township developments across the country covering around more than 2,000 hectares of land. These include Boracay Newcoast in Boracay Island, Aklan (150 hectares); Twin Lakes in Alfonso, Batangas near Tagaytay (1,200 hectares); Southwoods City on the boundaries of Carmona, Cavite and Biñan, Laguna (561 hectares); Sta. Barbara Heights in Sta. Barbara, Iloilo (173 hectares); Alabang West in Las Piñas (62 hectares); and the Eastland Heights in Antipolo, Rizal (640 hectares), which it launched late last year.

Megaworld owns 82.3 percent of GERI. The parent firm earlier said it has allocated P60 billion for its capital expenditure this year, which would also be used for its subsidiaries such as GERI.

Apart from GERI, other real estate subsidiaries of Megaworld are Suntrust Properties Inc. and Empire East Holdings Inc. of which it holds 100 percent and 82 percent stake, respectively.