Megaworld pipelines 21 office, commercial developments in 5 years

MANILA, Philippines — Megaworld Corp. is targeting to complete 21 new office and commercial projects in the next five years across 11 townships in the country.

Megaworld chief strategy officer Kevin Tan said these are big-ticket projects that would help the economy recover.

“These are big-ticket projects that we want to pursue as we look forward to full recovery in our economy, and the return of consumer confidence to normalcy. All of these new developments will spruce up our new townships, and at the same time, further expand our rental income portfolio. More than 70 percent of these new projects are office developments,” Tan said during the company’s annual stockholders meeting.

Out of the 21 projects, 15 are office developments, which will rise in Uptown Bonifacio and McKinley West in Taguig City; Arcovia City in Pasig City, Iloilo Business Park in Iloilo City; The Upper East in Bacolod City, Capital Town in Pampanga; The Mactan Newtown in Cebu; and Davao Park District in Davao City.

Commercial projects in the pipeline are five lifestyle malls in The Upper East and Northill Gateway in Bacolod; Capital Town in Pampanga; Maple Grove in Cavite; Highland City in Rizal and one hotel in The Mactan Newtown.

For this year alone, the company is targeting to complete 19 projects across its business segments.

Megaworld is looking to raise up to P27.3 billion from the initial public offering  of its newly-formed subsidiary MREIT, Inc., which is considered the Philippines’ biggest REIT offering to date.

During the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting, Megaworld chairman and CEO Andrew Tan expressed optimism that the pandemic has strengthened the firm’s resolve to further grow its development portfolio by tapping opportunities on new consumer demands.

“We have numerous opportunities to explore in our growth pipeline, and we are prepared to take them on. We foresee continued robust demand for horizontal developments, and leisure and tourism estates, as people look for havens for rest and rejuvenation. Demand for warehouses and logistics hubs should also increase, and we believe that our townships can easily cater to this need given their strategic locations,” Tan said.