Villar-led Vista Land & Lifescapes, Inc. said on Monday that it sees demand in its property segment to increase due to renewed spending confidence of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) as the dollar appreciates.

“We are slated to launch more projects this quarter as we take advantage of the renewed confidence from our overseas Filipino buyers. Such confidence is also seen in the performance of our retail stores which translates to better mall revenues,” Vista Land Chairman Manuel B. Villar, Jr. said in a press release.

Vista Land said that sales of its residential projects have been on an increasing trend with OFWs benefitting from the higher peso value of their dollar remittance.

In the first half, Vista Land launched P11-billion worth of projects, already exceeding the number of projects it launched in 2021.

Meanwhile, the company saw an improvement in the foot traffic in its malls as people continued with their revenge shopping.

“We are excited going into the last quarter of the year with both our residential and leasing businesses continuing with [their] upward trend,” Mr. Villar said.

Vista Land said that it has zero exposure to Philippine offshore gaming operators and has instead been banking on its residential communities for mall developments and the business process outsourcing industry for office tenants.

“Majority of the company’s gross floor area of investment properties are community-based malls and commercial centers,” the company said.

“Our residential business is self-funding as 80% of our buyers are mortgaged finance while the expansion of our leasing business will be through our REIT (real-estate investment trust) offerings,” Vista Land President and Chief Executive Officer Manuel Paolo A. Villar said.

“We also have a diversified funding source which is a factor to our liability management exercise,” he added pointing to Vista Land’s debt-to-equity ratio that stood at 0.88 by the end of June.

The company said that it will be launching more projects from its over 60 Vista Estates developments around the country.

Vista Estates is “Vista Land’s version of integrated development of horizontal and vertical residences, commercial spaces, office components and lifestyle options that is aimed for sustainability, innovation, lifestyle-driven, world-class and primed for growth.”

On Monday, shares of Vista Land closed higher by four centavos or 2.50% to P1.64 apiece. — Justine Irish DP. Tabile

Ayala Land, Inc. (ALI) and GCash have partnered to allow the latter’s subscribers to browse and pay for the property developer’s residential brands directly through the e-payment firm.

“Now, Ayala Land customers can experience the convenience and ease of exploring the future property investments via GLife right in the convenience of their homes with just a few clicks and taps on their phones,” GCash Chief Commercial Officer Oscar A. Reyes Jr. said during the partnership launch on Monday.

“This will also give access to all users to view the showcase of properties Ayala Land has to offer,” he said, adding that the feature empowers consumers to make the best choices that will suit their real estate needs.

In a press release, GCash President and Chief Executive Officer Martha M. Sazon said the partnership “enables potential homeowners and property seekers to conduct virtual unit viewing and, after they make the decision to buy a property, access cashless payment of reservation fees using their e-wallet account.”

She added that homebuyers “no longer need to pay their real estate dues through traditional channels like post-dated checks, bank deposits, over-the-counter payments to property developers, or brokers.”

Among the residential brands that will be available in the GCash application under its GLife feature are ALI’s four key brands: Ayala Land Premier, Alveo, Avida, and Amaia.

To access the ALI brands, GCash subscribers can simply tap GLife on their GCash dashboard and choose the real estate category to access available property listings.

“For us, this is a very important initiative primarily because our mission is to be able to reach out to more Filipinos,” ALI President and Chief Executive Officer Bernard Vincent O. Dy said about tapping the millions of GCash subscribers. “In the Philippines, owning your own home is one of the key aspirations.”

According to Mr. Reyes, the partnership could help generate more sales leads for ALI properties and would enable convenience in making payments or browsing properties.

“In GLife, there [will be] property listings and if customers are interested to look at those, they can just fill something out, and [GCash] will generate this for Ayala, and Ayala contacts them and proceeds with the next process,” Mr. Reyes said.

“But at the same time, I think we are enabling other functionalities so that [ALI customers] can make payments within GCash,” he added.

GCash or G-Xchange, Inc. has 69 million registered users and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Globe Fintech Innovations, Inc.

ALI, the real estate arm of Ayala Corp., has 31 sustainable estates and is present in 57 growth areas nationwide. It has five residential brands, namely: Ayala Land Premier, Alveo, Avida, Amaia, and BellaVita.

On Monday, ALI shares climbed by 15 centavos or 0.66% to P23 apiece. — Justine Irish DP. Tabile

Digital transformation has encouraged business formation, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said, as it recorded a significant rise in the number of local companies and partnerships.

“The launch of the Electronic Simplified Processing of Application for Registration of Company (eSPARC) led to a sharp jump in the number of newly registered domestic corporations and partnerships in 2021, rising by 50.5% and 33.4%, respectively, despite the pandemic,” SEC said in a press release.

eSPARC is a web-based system that allows the online registration of one-person corporations (OPCs) as well as stock and nonstock domestic corporations.

Under it, is a subsystem called the One Day Submission and E-registration of Companies, which allows applicants to complete the registration process within a day.

eSPARC is integrated with the SEC cashiering system and online payment portal, Electronic System for Payments to SEC, which provides the public a more convenient means to pay fees.

It is also linked to the Philippine Business Hub, which is the government’s centralized platform that allows the public to access forms and submit requirements related to business registrations.

“The digitalization of company registration in the country complemented legislative reforms aimed at making doing business in the Philippines easier,” SEC said.

It cited Republic Act No. 11232 or the Revised Corporation Code of the Philippines, which introduced OPCs, eased capital requirements, removed residency requirements for incorporators and directors, and allowed for the perpetual existence of corporations, among others.

The regulator also said that through eSPARC and other reforms, the business registration process was shortened to six steps in over eight days from 16 steps spanning 34 days.

Separately, the SEC said that a company may issue shares of stock at a premium without increasing its capital stock. It made the statement through an opinion in response to a query from Fleet Marine Cable Solutions, Inc.

“It is legal for a company to issue shares at a premium or over the par value of the shares as stated in its articles of incorporation, and for the subscribers of a corporation to pay more than the par value of the shares they subscribed as there is no law, rule or regulation that prohibits [it],” SEC said.

The regulator also said that a company is allowed to have paid-up capital that is more than its authorized capital stock (ACS).

A company’s ACS is defined by the SEC as the “minimum amount of capital which the corporation will receive when it issues all its shares.” Its paid-up capital pertains to shares that were actually subscribed and paid.

The SEC said that in the case of Fleet Marine, the paid-up capital of the corporation would possibly be more than the ACS fixed in its articles of incorporation, especially if the capital stock is fully subscribed.

The commission’s opinion involves the case of an Indonesian national who is a holder of a special investor’s resident visa. The Indonesian invested P3.75 million in Fleet Marine, raising the company’s paid-up capital to P13.25 million and exceeding the authorized capital of P10 million. — Justine Irish DP. Tabile