Gokongwei-led Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC) plans to spin off some of its office property assets into a real estate investment trust (REIT) company that will list on the Philippine Stock Exchange next year. In its disclosure, the company said it has 25 office buildings that it can include in the Robinsons Land REIT, with a net leasable area of over 600,000 square meters.
But instead of using Altus Property Ventures Inc.—an existing subsidiary that listed by way of an introduction last June—RLC is looking to create an entirely new REIT company.
“New listing is the intent,” RLC president Frederick Go said in a text reply to the Inquirer.
“It will purely be an office REITco. We plan to inject several of our office assets into the new REITco,” he added.
REIT is a corporation that primarily invests in income-generating real estate assets such as office space, shopping malls, service apartments, hotels, hospitals, and warehouses. It gives investors an opportunity to invest directly in the finished projects rather than the developer itself. This is meant to attract dividend-seeking investors because the REIT law requires the distribution of at least 90 percent of income as dividends annually.
This is a new asset class that allows property developers to recycle capital to fund more projects.
In the first nine months of the year, RLC’s office buildings division posted a 20-percent year-on-year growth in revenue to P4.34 billion despite the economic downturn caused by the lengthy coronavirus pandemic. Cash flow generated from this segment escalated by 23 percent to P3.82 billion.
RLC’s office division continues to expand leasable space and expand its portfolio of flexible workspace under the workable brand, which currently has operational sites in Pasig and Quezon City.
“We are encouraged by the steady recovery of our businesses on the back of improving trends seen on a quarterly basis, as well as in October. Increasing customer engagement and the sustained interest from external partners give us confidence that business will continue to pick up in the coming months. For the remainder of the year, we will continue to focus on operational recovery while implementing strict safety protocols,” RLC President and CEO Frederick Go said.
PSE president Ramon Monzon earlier said there were two to three prospective new listings in the coming months.
Aside from Robinsons Land REIT offering, DoubleDragon Properties Corp. of Injap Sia has announced plans for a REIT initial public offering worth nearly P17 billion. It plans to infuse its single most valuable property portfolio—DD Meridian Park in Pasay City where the company’s headquarter office is—into a REIT with a basket of assets estimated at P50.89 billion, one-third of which will be sold down to the public.
The first REIT in the country, AREIT Inc. which is sponsored by Ayala Land Inc., sold P13.6 billion worth of shares—mostly secondary shares—during its initial offering last August.
Source: Inquirer; BusinessMirror
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