Major property Ayala Land Inc. has boosted its share buyback program by P25 billion to boost shareholder value.
Ayala Land said in a disclosure to the stock exchange the additional P25-billion budget to the company’s share buyback program would bring the available balance to P26.1 billion.
“The program will be implemented through open market purchases executed via the trading facilities of the Philippine Stock Exchange,” ALI said.
After hitting a 52-week high of P53.85 apiece in July, share price of ALI has been on the downward trend. Share price of Friday fell 0.5 percent to P42.25.
Meanwhile, ALI said its board of directors approved the issues of up to P10 billion in fixed-rate retail bonds. The company plans to use proceeds from the sale to partially finance general corporate requirements and refinance maturing loans.
ALI will issue the P10-billion bonds from the company’s-P50 billion bond shelf registration program approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission last year.
The latest bond offering will be listed with Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp.
The property firm so far has issued three tranches from the P50-billion bond shelf registration program, including P8 billion of securities issued in May, P3 billion in September and P10 billion in November.
ALI in 2019 registered a net income of P33.2 billion, up 13 percent from P29.4 billion in 2018, on aggressive project launches.
Consolidated revenues climbed two percent in 2019 to P168.8 billion, driven by office, and commercial and industrial lots sales, and supported by higher contributions from new leasing formats.
Revenues from property development rose three percent to P117.6 billion, boosted by sales of office, commercial and industrial lots.
Residential sales, however, declined eight percent to P93.2 billion from P101 billion in 2018 although reservation sales rose three percent to P145.9 billion.
Commercial leasing revenue increased 13 percent to P39.3 billion, fueled by strong contributions from newly-opened malls, office and hotels.
ALI also reported that it spent P109 billion in 2019 as it continued to invest in new mixed-use developments across the country.