PH Realty Players DoubleDragon, Filinvest Land Move Ahead On REIT Listing

Philippine-listed real estate developers DoubleDragon Properties Corp and Filinvest Land are lining up shares sales of their real estate investment trust (REIT) subsidiaries in a move that could transform the local bourse as the region’s hotspot for initial public offerings (IPOs) this year.

DoubleDragon and Filinvest Land’s REIT listing will be the second and third in the country, respectively, following Ayala Land’s AREIT Inc’s IPO that raised 13.6 billion pesos ($280 million) last year, when regulators sweetened the rules on REITs.

Philippine developer DoubleDragon Properties Corp is seeking to raise up to 14.7 billion pesos ($302 million) after setting the final offer price for the initial public offering (IPO) of its real estate investment trust (REIT) at 2.25 pesos per share. The final offer price is the higher end of the range due to strong demand during the bookbuild process, DoubleDragon told the Philippine Stock Exchange.

On Wednesday, the listed firm said its subsidiary DDPM REIT Inc received approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to sell 5.9 billion common shares with an over-allotment option of up to 594 million shares. DoubleDragon said the DDMP basket is seen to be a compelling REIT offering since it will include the land, a premier corner lot located along the main thoroughfares of Macapagal Avenue, EDSA Extension, and Roxas Boulevard, where the first six completed buildings sit on.

Meanwhile, Filinvest Land, another listed property company, has announced plans to raise up to 14.9 billion pesos ($307 million) REIT offering through its subsidiary, Cyberzone Properties Inc. In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange Wednesday, the firm said Cyberzone Properties will sell up to 1.79 billion shares, including an over-allotment option of 163 million shares, at 8.30 pesos per share. Cyberzone Properties owns and operates the office buildings in Northgate Cyberzone on a 10-hectare property in Filinvest City in Alabang, Muntinlupa.

It also leases a parcel of land measuring 2,831 square meters on EDSA on which it built a 5-story BPO building with gross leasable area of 7,358 sq. m. Currently, Filinvest has 43 existing office towers. With other buildings under construction, the company has over 824,000 square meters of gross leasable area.

PH IPO market gets active

The DoubleDragon and Filinvest Land REITs are among the seven IPOs expected this year that will make the Philippine market the leader in the region, after years of being the weakest.

The seven IPOs could raise a record amount of over $3.3 billion, surpassing the total of $2.7 billion raised in the archipelago from 2016 to 2020. Other REITs that are expected to IPO this year are the REITs of SM Prime Holdings, Robinsons Land, and Megaworld Corporation.

Last week, Philippine food maker Monde Nissin officially lodged its application with the SEC to raise up to 63 billion pesos ($1.3 billion) in an IPO that could become the country’s largest-ever listing.

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), the local transmission operator partly owned by the State Grid Corporation of China, is also taking steps to push through its long-delayed IPO that would garner about $1 billion.