Vista Land plans REIT offering, sees recovery signs as income falls

VILLAR-LED Vista Land & Lifescapes, Inc. is keen on doing a real estate investment trust (REIT) offering for some of its leasing assets to improve its financial position during the coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement on Monday, the property developer said it is “seriously looking at the possibility of doing a REIT with our 1.5 million square meters GFA (gross floor area) leasing portfolio.”

It noted 15% of its leasing portfolio is made up of office spaces occupied by business process outsourcing tenants, which have remained operational throughout the past months of the lockdown.

The rest are from malls, which Vista Land said are occupied mostly by tenants offering essential services.

“Rest assured that Vista Land is continuously making the necessary adjustments to operate effectively in the new normal and is strengthening our financial and operational positions to be able to address the needs of all our stakeholders,” Vista Land President and CEO Manuel Paolo A. Villar said in the statement.

Also on Monday, the company reported that its earnings in the nine months through September dropped 39% to P5.5 billion. It recorded consolidated revenues of P25.7 billion, down by 25% from the same period last year.

Without disclosing details, it said its third quarter-performance improved against the previous quarter, as activity started picking up when the government relaxed quarantine rules beginning June.

“This pandemic continues to impact our performance, both on our leasing and residential businesses. However, as mentioned before, we are glad to have seen encouraging signs of recovery when the economy started to reopen last June,” Vista Land Chairman Manuel B. Villar, Jr. said in the statement.

The company plans to launch more residential projects in the fourth quarter to add to the five projects that it launched in the past nine months, which were valued at P5 billion.

It is allocating P25 billion for capital expenditures this year, of which some 71% has already been spent.

Shares in Vista Land closed at P3.82 each on Monday, up four centavos or 1.06% from the last session. — Denise A. Valdez

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Article and Photo originally posted by Business World last November 17, 2020, 12:07am.