Megaworld income down 45% in 2020 due to pandemic

Listed Megaworld Corp. on Wednesday said it saw its net income drop 45 percent to P10.6 billion last year as the pandemic hampered its businesses.

The Andrew Tan-led property firm also recorded 35-percent lower consolidated revenues of P43.5 billion last year.

In a disclosure, Megaworld Chief Strategy Officer Kevin Tan said their office business segment is the “most stable income generator” in the company’s revenue stream.

The rental revenues of Megaworld Premier Offices stood at P10.4 billion last year, almost the same level a year ago.

Megaworld said around 135,000 square meters (sqm) of office space inventory were leased out in its township projects in Iloilo, Quezon City and Fort Bonifacio.

“These are mostly companies operating BPOs (business process outsourcing), e-commerce, logistics and finance. And we are very happy to see the strong interest on our office developments in Iloilo Business Park. Approximately 20 percent of new leases have been booked there and we even cemented our dominance in terms of market share in the Iloilo office market,” Tan noted.

The company said it added 87,000 sqm of office spaces last year, bringing its total leasable office inventory to 1.4 million sqm, excluding those for sale in Iloilo Business Park and Maple Grove in Cavite.

Megaworld’s rental income was down 23 percent to P12.9 billion and real estate sales dipped 42 percent to P24.9 billion last year.

Megaworld Hotels, meanwhile, ended 2020 with a profit of P1.5 billion.

Despite the declines, Megaworld said it saw “remarkable recovery” in its core businesses during the last quarter as quarantine measures were eased.

Real estate sales climbed 22-percent quarter-on-quarter in the fourth quarter as reservation sales rose 85 percent quarter-on-quarter.

Megaworld Lifestyle Malls and Megaworld Hotels also posted 24 percent and 25 percent quarter-on-quarter growth, respectively.

Megaworld currently has 26 masterplanned integrated urban townships, integrated lifestyle communities and lifestyle estates nationwide.

Shares of Megaworld lost 12 centavos or 3.33 percent on Wednesday to close at P3.48 apiece.

Article and Photo originally posted by Manila Times last April 15, 2021 and written by Faye Almazan.