Vista Land earnings grow 13% to P2.6 billion

MANILA, Philippines — The Villar family’s integrated property company earned 13 percent more in the first quarter to P2.6 billion due to the continued growth of its core residential business and significant contribution from its leasing business.

Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc. yesterday said consolidated revenues for the quarter reached P10.1 billion, up 12 percent from P9 billion in the same period last year.

Leasing revenue for the quarter, in particular, increased 14 percent to P1.6 billion from P1.4 billion last year.

Vista Land president and CEO Manuel Paolo Villar said the leasing business now accounts for 28 percent of EBITDA (Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) and 23 percent of net income, and these are expected to further increase towards the end of the year.

“We have seen a continued growth in our leasing business as we continue to roll out our expansion programs to achieve our new upgraded target of 1.4 million square meters in gross floor area by the end of this year,” he said.

Vista Land has launched worth about P12 billion in the first quarter.

The company earlier said it has earmarked P50 billion for capital expenditures this year.

“In addition to the expansion of our rental spaces, which provides stability to our existing core and stable end-user housing business, we will continue to launch and open projects in new areas across the Philippines as we get on with our next 100 new cities and municipalities in addition to what we had at the end of 2017,” Villar said.

“Demand for our housing products has been stable as our sales from overseas Filipinos remained solid at about 60 percent of our total sales and we are also seeing domestic demand increase,” he added.

Vista Land has an established presence in 141 cities and municipalities across 47 provinces as of end-March and intends to focus on the development of “communicities” – integrated urban developments combining lifestyle retail, prime office space, university town, healthcare, themed residential developments and leisure components.

“2018 promises to be another record year for Vista Land. We are pleased to have been able to achieve solid growth over the past years and it should be the same this year as we take advantage of the various synergies that we have unlocked among our businesses,” Vista Land chairman Manuel Villar said.

Villar said the firm’s positive outlook for the year is due to the continued growth of its housing business as well as the expansion of its commercial assets on the back of sound Philippine macroeconomic fundamentals.

“We also are seeing stable demand in our housing business as we registered 12 percent growth in reservation sales for the quarter, the same rate as the full year growth registered in 2017,” he said.