Alphaland gets buy-in offers from Thai, Chinese investors

MANILA, Philippines — Alphaland Corp., the luxury property firm chaired by tycoon Roberto Ongpin, said three foreign investors from Thailand and China have expressed interest to invest in the company.

The company is still evaluating the offers.

Alphaland announced yesterday that its first-half net income jumped to P3.36 billion from P781 million a year ago on the back of brisk reservations for its new projects.

In particular, strong sales of Alphaland’ Baguio Mountain Lodges project and new Balesin private villas pushed earnings up.

The higher profit was also attributed to improving rental incomes from Alphaland Southgate Tower and Alphaland Corporate Tower, both in Makati.

In Baguio, Alphaland plans to introduce two and three-bedroom lodges, touted as the most luxurious mountain lodges in the north.

The new two and three units will sell for half of the price of the current large four, five- and six-bedroom lodges and are expected to result in even stronger sales for the second half.

In Balesin, Alphaland is also constructing four more private villas, which will be for sale to large corporations to use as incentive for their customers.  These private villas will be completed before the end of the year.

Alphaland launched earlier this year a 250-room luxury serviced apartments project, The Alpha Suites.  In just three months, it  already contributed to the company’s profitability. 

The Alphaland Corporate Tower at Makati Place, consisting of 27,000 square meters, is now also fully leased.

Data from the company further showed that Alphaland continues to have a strong balance sheet with debt of only 8.6 percent versus equity of 91.4 percent, the opposite of most property development firms.

As of the end of June,  Alphaland’s equity stood at P64.7 billion.

Alphaland was organized in 2006 as a joint venture between the Ashmore Group and Ongpin.

However, in 2013, Ongpin acquired Ashmore’s stake.

The company elected a new set of directors during  its annual shareholders’ meeting.

Among those elected were Duturte ally Dennis Uy, Senator Juan Edgardo Angara, Francisco Ed Lim, Eric Recto and Lorenzo Tan while the new independent directors are Florentino Herrera III, Gilberto Teodoro, Jr., Ramon Villarin S.J. and Gregorio Yu.

Re-elected directors were businessman Gregorio Ma. Araneta III and former finance secretary Margarito Teves as independent directors and Mario Oreta and Dennis Valdes.

Ongpin was re-elected chairman and CEO while his daughter Anna Bettina Ongpin was re-elected president. Recto and Tan were elected as vice chair.