PROFRIENDS LAND-BANK DEVELOPMENT OF LOW-ENDS MAY LAST THROUGH 2034

PROPERTY developer Profriends Group Inc. said it will develop its existing land bank through 2034 as it plans to develop products to serve the lower-end segment of the market.



Profriends, formerly Amicus Holdings Inc., said in a briefing that it will develop its 1,373.41-hectare land bank, mostly outside urban areas.



“As such, our price per square meter is only one-fourth, or one-fifth of those properties in Metro Manila,” Guillermo Choa, the company’s president and CEO, said in a briefing. He said prices of its house-and-lot units ranged from P20,000 to P25,000 per sq m compared with an average of P100,000 per sq m for condominium units.



At the moment, the company built some 17 projects on 118 hectares of its land, Choa said.



A huge chunk of the company’s development over the next 20 years will be devoted to its 1,435.22-hectare Lancaster Estates in General Trias in Cavite, followed by the 170.12-hectare Iloilo Estates that will be completed in 2019 and the 110.41-hectare Bellefort Estates in Bacoor, Cavite, that will be completed by 2023.



The company has been developing the land since 2007 and said it sold more than 11,000 housing units from the initial “pocket sized” villages that it launched. Sales were accelerated with the opening Cavite Expressway in 2011 that cuts travel time between Manila and Cavite, it said. Profriends is holding its initial public offering of up to 385.75 million unissued common shares at an indicative price of P20 per share.



At the said price, it will raise P7.7 billion, with proceeds financing its projects in Cavite, Iloilo and Cagayan de Oro. The company said about P2.48 billion will be infused to its financing unit Williamton Holdings Inc. for the expansion of its receivables. Williamton will be later on be renamed as Profriends Financing Corp.
Also, some P1.24 billion will be used to purchase more land in already identified areas. As of June, the company is set to purchase some 104.48 hectares of property in Cavite province, 101.22 hectares of land in Cagayan de Oro and 26.97 hectares in Iloilo.



These lots will yield the company some 13,045 units of various types. The rest of the proceeds of about P600 million will go to “general corporate purposes.”



“Profriends shall further undertake the development of a private road-network link to Daang Hari in Bacoor, Cavite, making Lancaster City easily accessible as well to and from other parts of Metro Manila and Laguna,” it said.



The company said it will strengthen and expand its regional presence in the Visayas and Mindanao, while going further into budget houses that cost as low as P300,000 per unit.



In 2012 Profriends acquired Firm Builders Realty Development Corp., a socialized housing developer that completed 26 projects in key cities outside of Metro Manila. Some of the units only had floor areas of 24 sq m to 42 sq m. Earlier this year, it incorporated Micara Land Inc. as it forayed deeper into the low-cost housing segment that costs between P650,000 and P1.2 million.



Micara is set to launch its first project by the end of the year.The company closed the first half of the year with profits of P1.66 billion, up from last year’s P1.49 billion.Its revenues reached P4.96 billion, up from last year’s P4.75 billion.



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