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By Likha C. Cuevas, Reporter
MEGAWORLD Corp. announced on
Tuesday that its earnings last year jumped by three quarters on the
back of what the company said is a more sustainable pick-up in the
property sector.
In a statement, Megaworld said
its net profit rose 75 percent to P2.04 billion from the P1.16
billion posted in 2005. This was the company’s biggest profit on
record since 1996.
“The main difference between
the two property booms is that in 2006 we were just on the verge of
a major property upswing and we kicked it off with our best
performance yet. We believe that given the positive macro picture,
the current property up cycle is far more sustainable than the last
one,” Andrew Tan, Megaworld chairman and president said.
The company said revenues grew 75
percent to P9.4 billion last year, attributing the growth to higher
real-estate sales, which rose to P6.16 billion last year, or almost
double the 2005 figures.
Rental income from business
process outsourcing (BPO) office buildings and retail projects also
contributed to the company’s earnings, rising 29 percent to P707
million last year.
For this year, the real-estate
developer earmarked P16 billion for its residential, BPO and retail
ventures in its six “mega-community” projects that include
McKinley Hill in Taguig City, Newport City in Pasay City, Manhattan
Garden City at the Araneta Center and Eastwood City in Quezon City.
Megaworld already raised P21 billion last year to fund its projects
for two years.
The company said total floor area
for all the residential mega-community projects stands at around 2.2
million square meters, with its housing inventory seen to last over
the next seven to eight years.
The company plans to build
500,000 square meters of BPO office space in the next five years
with half of this to be completed within the next two years.
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