AYALA Land Inc. (ALI), the country’s second-largest property developer, further increased its stake in Malaysia’s MCT Bhd as some of the minority owners unloaded their shares through the mandatory offer launched by the Philippine company.
In its disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday, ALI said it increased its stake in MCT by an additional 22.12 percent after receiving 295.27 million shares in tender offer.
ALI now owns 72.31 percent of MCT, up from the previous 50.19 percent.
Early this year, the company, through unit Regent Wise Investments Ltd., has acquired an additional 17.24 percent in MCT, increasing its shareholding to 50.19 percent from the previous 32.95 percent. Malaysian rules require a company to conduct a mandatory takeover offer on all of MCT, short for Modular Construction Technology, when a stake reaches more than half of the company.
“This increase in ownership will strengthen ALI’s commitment to enhance MCT’s operations and expand its business further. This will also provide ALI with a greater opportunity to take advantage of the growth potential and long-term prospects of the real-estate sector in Malaysia and will affirm ALI’s role as a key player in the Asean property sector,” the company earlier said.
“With ALI’s solid track record in developing large-scale, integrated, mixed-use and sustainable estates across the Philippines and in growing its diversified product lines, we believe that it is in a highly-capable position to boost the performance and enhance the value of MCT,” it added.
MCT has a market capitalization of about $450 million, making it a mid-sized firm when compared to biggest property company in Malaysia that has a capitalization of about $2.5 billion to $3 billion.
MCT was first established in 1999 as a construction company. The company has transformed itself as a property development company specializing in mixed-use projects that include retail, office, hotel and mid- to affordable residential.
The company was able to deliver projects at lower costs by adhering to a modular construction technique and by being an integrated builder with an in-house design team, in-house trading company, direct execution of specialist works and its own precast and ready-mixed concrete plants.
It has several ongoing projects in One City Subang Jaya and Cyberjaya, as well as a land bank in Dengkil, 1.5 kilometers away south of Cyberjaya, all located in the Klang Valley in Malaysia.