Villar’s Vista Land upbeat for 2023 as it builds on last year’s achievements

Manuel Villar Jr.

Billionaire Manuel Villar Jr.’s Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc. is keeping its bullish outlook for 2023 after booking higher core earnings and upsizing project launches last year by four times to P40 billion.

Its core profit last year rose 10 percent to P7.7 billion as net income margins expanded by half a percent to 57 percent. Total revenues were down 4 percent to P31.2 billion.

“We remain bullish with the industry for this year especially with the level of our project launches last year. We have a pipeline of projects going into 2023 and we are slated to launch more projects this year as buyers’ confidence is back,” Villar said in a statement over the weekend.

Vista Land, one of the country’s biggest housing developers, said capital expenditures reached P22.5 billion.

Bulk of the amount was spent on construction and land development activities.

“We have also announced our shift to the upscale, vertical and commercial projects in our existing developments through our Vista Estates in various areas around the country,” Villar said.

“[We] have launched 11 Vista Estate projects in 2022 but this is just the beginning, we will be announcing more Vista Estate projects in the coming months,” he added.

Manuel Paolo Villar, Vista Land president and CEO, said they ended the year with a land bank of over 2,900 hectares.

This could be developed over the next three decades as the company shifts to more vertical projects such as condominium towers.

“Our leasing business delivered in 2022 with a growth momentum given the return to ‘normalcy’ and the so-called revenge spending,” he said.

“The footfall of our malls has been improving and even exceeded prepandemic levels during weekends and holidays,” he added.

He noted that expansion plans for 2023 would be partially funded by proceeds from the P4.8-billion initial public offering of VistaREIT Inc. last year.

The developer expects to sustain sales growth this year amid strong demand from overseas Filipino workers, who helped push up reservation sales last year by 12 percent to P65.5 billion.

The company’s portfolio also includes 1.6 million square meters of gross floor area of commercial developments consisting of 45 malls, 56 commercial centers and seven office buildings.

Total assets last year stood at P322.5 billion while equity was at P123.7 billion. Net debt to equity stood at 82 percent compared to the previous year’s 91 percent, the statement showed. INQ

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