Prime Orion to enter into industrial park development through share swap

AYALA Land, Inc. (ALI) will swap some of its shares in Laguna Technopark, Inc. (LTI) with Prime Orion Philippines, Inc. (POPI), allowing the Tutuban Center developer to venture into the development of industrial parks.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange on Friday, ALI said its executive committee has approved the exchange of shares with POPI valued at P3 billion.

Under the deal, POPI will issue 1.225 billion common shares to ALI in exchange for 30,186 LTI common shares, resulting in POPI acquiring a 75% equity interest in LTI.

“Combining LTI and POPI will create a bigger entity that will pursue real estate logistics and industrial development and reposition POPI to be a leading real estate logistics and industrial estate developer and operator in the Philippines,” ALI said.

Formed through a partnership between ALI and Mitsubishi Corp., LTI develops industrial parks in the country. Its portfolio includes the Laguna Technopark, a 460-hectare industrial estate that caters to light and medium, non-polluting locators from both local and global firms, according to its website.

LTI has further developed the Cavite Technopark, a 118-hectare estate similar to Laguna Technopark that aims to attract manufacturing investors that specialize in electronics, automotive, consumer products, food processing, and pharmaceuticals.

POPI returned to profitability in the first nine months of 2017, posting an attributable profit of P91.57 million against an attributable loss of P394.31 million in the same period in 2016.

This year, the listed firm said it will focus on the further development of Tutuban Center, which covers a gross leasable area of 60,000 square meters sitting on a 20-hectare property. POPI plans to double the leasable area of the shopping center and convert it into a mixed-use development in the future.

ALI’s net income climbed 21% to P25.3 billion in 2017 as revenues also grew 14% to P142.3 billion last year. The company is spending P110.8 billion this year in order to support the demand for more residential, office, and retail developments in the country.

Shares in ALI lost 3.81% or P1.60 to P40.35 each at the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday, while shares in POPI gained 17 centavos or 5.43% to close at P3.30 each. — Arra B. Francia