At its annual stockholders’ meeting held today, Ayala Corporation Chairman and CEO Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala announced that the Ayala group plans to spend P187 billion in capital expenditures in 2014. This is a record amount of investments for the group, surpassing the previous year’s P128 billion. The bulk of this will support Ayala Land’s expansion, Globe Telecom’s on-going network improvements, and Manila Water Company’s service improvements, as well as to fund the conglomerate’s expansion in power and transport infrastructure.
Mr. Zobel said, “The sustained positive momentum in the economy has, to a large extent, helped shape the Ayala group’s growth strategy over the past few years. Our combined group capital spending has expanded aggressively over the past five years amounting to nearly P500 billion as our core businesses in real estate, banking, telecommunications and water distribution executed aggressive growth strategies to seize investment opportunities in their respective sectors. We consider this a significant contribution to our national economy,” Mr. Zobel noted.
Ayala’s consolidated net income in 2013 grew by 22% to P12.8 billion, driven mainly by its real estate and banking units, as well as the improved performance of its international businesses. Its core net income, however, which excludes Globe’s accelerated depreciation charges was even higher at P14.8 billion. This earnings performance translates to a return on equity of 10.2 percent, an improvement from prior year’s 9.2 percent.
Ayala President and Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Fernando Zobel de Ayala said, “The sustained momentum of the Philippine economy remained conducive to the growth of Ayala’s businesses. Our core business units turned in a solid performance as we continued our efforts to aggressively expand in our markets and in new growth sectors.”
Ayala has made headway in the power and transport infrastructure sectors over the past three years. Mr. Zobel said, “We continued to build our portfolio in power and have a pipeline of projects. Our target is to invest a total of US$800 million in this sector by 2016. In the area of transport infrastructure, we have won two of the three projects that we bid for under the government’s public private partnership program and look forward to delivering these in the coming year.”
Ayala won the first PPP road project, the Daang Hari connector road, which is currently under construction and is expected to be completed within this year. It also recently signed the Concession Agreement for the Automated Fare Collection System project, which it won under the AF Consortium, a partnership between the Ayala and First Pacific groups.
Ayala share price closed at P613, up 18.3% year-to-date.
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