Megaworld Corp., the biggest lessor of office spaces, said it will wait for the revised implementing rules and regulations on the Real Estate Investment Trust before making a Reit offering.
Megaworld chief strategy officer Kevin Tan said in an interview at the sidelines of the company’s 25th listing anniversary at the Philippine Stock Exchange that it was not interested in conducting a Reit offering based on current rules that required “very high” minimum public ownership.
“We are definitely studying Reits. We are also carefully watching developments on Reit, because the current one we have right now, with the very high MPO requirement, is not something that interests us,” Tan said.
Tan, however, said Megaworld would be interested with the government’s move to amend the minimum public ownership required for Reit offering.
The present guidelines require a Reit company to have an initial minimum public ownership level of 40 percent, before raising it to 67 percent in three years.
The Securities and Exchange Commission last month said it was reviewing the rules to make them less stringent.
Tan said Megaworld had may options on REIT offerings, being one of the leading developers of office, hotels and malls in the country.
Ayala Land Inc. in April announced plans to raise about $500 million through a Reit offering involving prime office buildings in Makati.
The Reit Act passed in 2009 allows companies to list their real property assets with the Philippine Stock Exchange to serve as a new vehicle to raise funds for other investments and expansion initiatives.
Meanwhile, Tan said Megaworld would launch six additional townships over the next 18 months to boost its mixed-use development portfolio to 30 by 2020.
He said the new township developments would cover around 2,000 hectares. Five of these new expansive townships and lifestyle communities are in Luzon, while one is in Mindanao.
“Currently, we have a little over 4,000 hectares of both developed and developable land. By next year, we will increase our land ownership and landholding to more than 6,000 hectares as we continue to focus on our goal to expand to key growth areas in the provinces, help boost tourism, provide jobs and further spur economic opportunities outside of Metro Manila,” Tan said.
Megaworld has 24 townships and lifestyle communities spread across the country—nine in Metro Manila, eight in Luzon, six in Visayas and one in Mindanao (the Davao Park District).