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Posts Tagged ‘Ayala’

Ayala land increases BPO inventory

August 31st, 2010

Aside from substantially increasing its residential inventory, property giant Ayala Land, Inc. is also building more office space for lease amid the recovery of demand from the business process outsourcing sector.

ALI President Antonino Aquino said they are putting up new office spaces, particularly in the provinces, in response to the preference of BPO locators.

Set for launching for the rest of the year are BPO projects in Bacolod, Bonifacio Global City, UP Technohub, Pampanga, and Vertis in Quezon City.

The firm had placed its office space projects on the backburner and on a “push button” mode due to excess supply amid the declining demand in 2008 when the US economy weakened.

New buildings have already been put up earlier this year. “I think we had announced some, an example is our BPO building Iloilo and Bacolod. Most are in provincial locations because I think that is where it’s now better to do (these),” said Aquino.

Early this year, Ayala Land announced it will build Two Evotech, Cebu Peak A, and other BPO buildings in Iloilo, Bacolod, Baguio, and Cavite. The six buildings will add a total of 56,000 sqm. in new leasable space.

As of the middle of the year, the projected construction in six locations has increased to 11 with five already launched – Baguio, Ayala Center redevelopment, Two Evotech, Cebu, and Iloilo.

ALI has also kicked off several BPO projects in Manila. “We have announced what we are doing here in Glorietta 5. In Glorietta 2 we will also have BPO buildings there as well,” he added.

As of end-2009, Ayala has a total of 347,000 square meters of leasable space of which 67 percent has been occupied as of end-June 2010, compared to 58 percent a year ago.

For the first semester, revenues from Ayala Land’s office building reached P844 million, compared to P788 million last year. The 7 percent improvement was due to the significant growth in occupancy by 40,296 square meters.

Office revenues were further boosted by a 4 percent increase in average BPO lease rates due to both programmed rental escalations and a general improvement in outlook for the BPO sector as a whole.

Source:http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/274889/ayala-land-increases-bpo-inventory

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Ayala Land revs up BPO construction

August 30th, 2010

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Ayala Land, Inc., (Ayala Land) is revving up its construction of business process outsourcing after putting the plan in the backburner as early as 2008, with the company now initiating the activities again in areas like Bacolod, Cavite, and Quezon City, among others.

Ayala Land president Antonino Aquino, in a chance interview, said they are ramping up establishment of new office spaces, particularly in provincial locations, as they track the direction of locators’ preferences.

“I think we had announced some, an example is our BPO in Iloilo, (and) Bacolod. Because I think that is where it’s now better to do (this kind of projects),” said Aquino.

“We have the ones in Baguio…in Manila you have several of that. I guess we have announced what we are doing here in Glorietta 5. In Glorietta 2 we will also have BPO buildings there as well,” he added.

As of end-2009, Ayala has a total leasable space of 347,000 sqm of which 67 percent has been occupied as of end-June, compared to 58 percent a year ago.

Prior to the resumption of construction, Ayala Land has placed its office space projects on a “push button” mode to keep pace with the declining demand at that time.

Early this year, Ayala Land has announced jumpstarting the construction for Two Evotech, Iloilo BPO, Bacolod and Baguio, Cavite, and Cebu Peak A, all six locations totals 56,000 sq.m.

As of mid this year, the projected construction in six locations has increased to 11 with five already launched — Baguio, Ayala Center redevelopment, Two Evotech, Cebu, and Iloilo.

Set for launching for the rest of the year are BPO projects in Bacolod, Bonifacio Global City, UP Technohub, Pampanga, and Vertis in Quezon City.

For the first semester, revenues from Ayala Land’s office building reached P844 million, compared to P788 million last year. The 7 percent increase in office building revenues was generated by the significant growth in occupied BPO office GLA (gross leasabe area), which increased by 40,296 square meters compared with end-June 2009, the company said.

Source:http://www.malaya.com.ph/08312010/busi10.html

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Ayala net income rises 21% in Q2

August 14th, 2010

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AYALA CORP. on Friday reported a 21% year-on-year rise in its net income to P2.3 billion in the second quarter, as profit gains of its property development, banking, water distribution, business process outsourcing (BPO), electronics and car dealership units offset the drop suffered by its telecommunication subsidiary.

The second quarter growth, in turn, pushed the conglomerate’s first half net income to P4.42 billion, nearly 9% more than the P4.07 billion it reported in the same period in 2009.

“The results in the second quarter reflect a strong rebound from the lows of the recent economic slowdown,” the conglomerate’s disclosure to the stock exchange quoted its president and chief operating officer, Fernando Zobel de Ayala, as saying.

“Domestic consumption has been robust and benefitted our real estate, banking, and auto businesses…our water distribution business continues to expand and improve efficiencies,” he added.

He admitted, however, that the group’s “telecom business faces significant competitive challenges.”

Specifically, the following units posted net income growth in the first half:

Bank of the Philippine Islands, 5% to P5.6 billion;

Ayala Land Inc., 34% to P2.5 billion, driven by its residential brands Ayala Land Premiere, Alveo Land and Avida Land;

Manila Water Company, Inc., 34% to nearly P2 billion, as household water connections increased 8% and leakage continued to decline to 13.5% of distributed volume;

LiveIt Investments Ltd., Ayala’s holding company for its BPO investments, P1.6 billion from a P449-million loss following UK-based private equity firm Actis’s investment in Integreon which diluted LiveIt’s ownership to 56% from 86%;

Ayala Automotive Holdings Corp., 80% to P172 million, as this firm rode on the strong growth of the entire auto industry; and

Integrated Microelectronics Inc., $2.8 million from a $1.3-million loss in the first half last year, as “larger orders from major customers in storage device, telecom, automotive and consumer electronics picked up” from the global economic slump.
On the other hand, Globe Telecom Inc.’s net income dropped by a third to P5.1 billion in the first half, mainly due to a 9% dip in mobile service revenues; while international property investment vehicle AG Holdings Ltd. reported a net loss of P1.8 billion amid a sluggish real estate recovery in the US.

Source:http://www.bworldonline.com/main/content.php?id=15873

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Telco, banking units drag down Ayala group results

May 15th, 2010

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AYALA Corp. shares fell on Friday as the 175-year-old conglomerate reported a year-on-year drop in its first-quarter profit, dragged down by declines in the contribution of its telecom and banking units.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, AC said its consolidated net income in the first quarter reached P2.1 billion, down 4.7 percent from P2.2 billion in the same period last year.

Its shares fell to P322.50 on Friday from P327.50 previously.

Equity earnings from the conglomerate’s business units rose by 6 percent, driven by higher profit contributions of Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) and AC Capital.

“We are pleased with the trend in earnings performance of the business units, particularly in comparison to the past three quarters. The continued and steady improvement reflects the sustained recovery in the domestic market. We remain confident this trend will continue to improve moving forward in step with the economy and the improving pace of domestic consumption,” Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, AC chairman and chief executive, said.

Record sales and bookings from recently launched residential projects pushed ALI’s first-quarter net income by 32 percent to P1.2 billion. Its leasing portfolio also performed steadily with occupancy rate in malls rising to 94 percent and occupied business process outsourcing (BPO) office leasable area expanding by 59 percent.

But Globe Telecom’s earnings fell 26 percent to P2.9 billion, as revenues dropped 10 percent year-on-year and by 3 percent quarter-on-quarter because of intense competition and price pressures.

Bank of the Philippine Islands also suffered an income contraction of 5 percent to P2.7 billion. The bank’s revenues were steady at P9 billion, but net interest spreads narrowed by 54-basis points while trading profits weakened.

All companies under AC Capital–Manila Water Co., Integrated Micro-Electronic Inc., and Ayala Automotive–posted substantial growth and contributed to the turnaround, while AG Holdings and LiveIt recorded lower losses during the period.

Earnings of Manila Water rose by 35 percent to P839 million following its continued growth within its concession areas, as well as in other areas in the Philippines.

A recovery in the global electronics sector allowed IMI to post earnings of $3.2 million, reversing losses in the same period last year.

Ayala’s automotive dealerships rose by 9 percent in unit sales, reflecting the country’s vibrant domestic consumption. This pushed dealership income to surge by 124 percent as a result of higher vehicle sales, better service income, and improved income from collateral businesses.

The consolidated net loss of P279 million incurred by BPO investment firm LiveIt improved from last year’s P306 million.

Source:http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/4124438

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Ayala Land wants IT ecozone status for Cebu Business Park

November 26th, 2009

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Ayala Land affiliate Cebu Holdings, Inc. is seeking the conversion of the 50-hectare Cebu Business Park into a special economic zone for information technology (IT) to boost the marketability of the remaining lots there and accommodate “spillover” investments from Asiatown IT Park.

Francis O. Monera, Cebu Holdings president, said the firm has filed an application before the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) two months ago and Cebu City Mayor Tomas R. Osmeña has already endorsed it.

Mr. Monera said having the business park declared an IT ecozone would allow Cebu Holdings to entice IT-related companies to acquire lots and locate there. There are still nine commercial lots, with sizes ranging from 1,056 to 1,816 square meters, available at the park, data from the firm’s Web site showed.

There are seven buildings within the park that are registered as IT ecozone buildings, including a high-rise office tower and a seven-storey advanced technology center built by Lexmark Research and Development Corp.

The others are the HDMF-WTCI IT Tower, Keppel Center, Cebu IT Tower (which hosts the Wipro BPO Philippines call center), Innove Plaza and Pioneer House (which hosts Accenture’s delivery center in Cebu).

On top of the incentives provided by PEZA, a Cebu City ordinance in 2004 exempts these buildings from local taxes, except real property tax.

“Not all locators will be given incentives, but only the BPOs and those that are IT-related,” Mr. Monera said.

The centerpiece of the business park is a 9.6-hectare retail zone, where the Ayala Center Cebu shopping center is located. The park also hosts office buildings, the Cebu City Marriott Hotel, a sports center, and residential condominium buildings.

Mr. Monera said the firm opted for the conversion of the park into an IT ecozone instead of scouting for another property that will be developed into a cyberpark.

The 24-hectare Asiatown IT Park, the flagship project of Cebu Holdings subsidiary Cebu Property Ventures and Development Corp., is sold out.

Cebu Property Ventures is now developing a five-hectare expansion area. Since there is limited land for sale at Asiatown, Cebu Property Ventures has shifted from selling lots to constructing office buildings for business process outsourcing companies through a special purpose vehicle.

Asian I-Office Properties, Inc., a special purpose vehicle of Cebu Property Ventures and the Ayala Land, Inc. Corporate Business Group, completed its first mid-rise BPO building at Asiatown early this year and is planning to build a second building at the cyberpark’s expansion area next year.

The first building, dubbed the eBloc Tower, hosts the Chase Card Services Center of JP Morgan Chase & Co. and the research and development facility of NCR Cebu Development Center, Inc. — Marites S. Villamor.
Source:http://www.bworldonline.com/main/content.php?id=2258

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Ayala unit buys US research firm

November 11th, 2009

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IN an effort to expand its services, international business process outsourcing (BPO) firm Integreon, partly owned by the country’s oldest conglomerate Ayala Corp., acquired Grail Research, a US-based research and decision support firm.

Integreon is considered a leader in knowledge process outsourcing (KPO), which offers “higher-value” products such as market research, legal, financial as well as accounting services.

In a filing to the local stock exchange on Wednesday, Ayala Corp. said Integreon acquired Grail from the Monitor Group, a multinational advisory firm, which also agreed to buy research services from Integreon for the next five years. Integreon is owned by its management team and LiveIt Investments, Ayala Corp.’s BPO investment arm.

“Grail will enable Integreon to further climb the value chain, and will strengthen its position as the leading KPO company,” LiveIt Investments chief executive officer Fred Ayala said in a statement yesterday.

“This acquisition accelerates the expansion of our business intelligence, research and analytics business with high-end, custom market research,” added Integreon chief executive Liam Brown.

The addition of Grail is seen to strengthen Integreon’s capability to meet the research demands of its corporate clients, while expanding its presence to “strategic” markets such as South Africa and China. At present, Grail services leading multinationals such as Microsoft, Estée Lauder and most of the “top 10” pharmaceutical companies.

Integreon provides a range of services using document, research, legal and business knowledge process outsourcing. Its customers include many top US and United Kingdom based law firms and corporations, almost all of the global investment banks, several top-tier private equity firms and hedge funds, among others.

Source:http://businessmirror.com.ph/home/companies/18413-ayala-unit-buys-us-research-firm.html

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