DoubleDragon earns 84% more to P1.4 B

MANILA, Philippines — DoubleDragon Properties Corp., the listed property and mall developer of Mang Inasal founder Edgar “Injap” Sia II and Jollibee Foods Corp. chairman Tony Tan Caktiong, reported a net income of P1.4 billion in the first nine months, up 83.7 percent  year on year.

 In a regulatory filing, DoubleDragon said revenues rose to P4.08 billion from P1.99 billion a year ago.

In the third quarter alone, net income grew 66 percent to P1.02 billion from P616.8 million. Revenues jumped 91 percent to P2.45 billion.

Sia said CityMall’s relevance in the provincial areas is becoming more and more evident, driven by the organic shift from traditional retail to modern retail in the Tier3 provincial areas of the country and the noticeable penetration of e-commerce in the Tier1 urban areas of the country.

He said these two transitions are expected to make expansion into CityMalls more and more critical to modern retail tenants, seeking to hedge its exposure against the disruptive  digitalization of the retail environment in Metro Manila.

“We expect the inflection point of these transitions to be felt within the next three years, just in time for the completion of our goal of having a strong network of 100 CityMalls in the provincial areas of the Philippines,” Sia said.

He believes that the business model of CityMall is positioned to remain relevant beyond the age of digitalization because it focuses on delivering only basic necessities, and generally, the supermarket, cinema, services and food tenants combined occupy more than 70 percent of a typical CityMall.

At present, the company now has 25 City Malls while its two Metro Manila office projects, Jollibee Tower and DD Meridian Park are also well underway.

DoubleDragon Plaza, the first phase of DD Meridian Park, is expected to be completed by December this year ahead of schedule, while the Jollibee Tower is expected to be completed as scheduled by December next year 2018.