Mreit Inc. said its sponsor, Megaworld Corp., will infuse P15 billion worth of commercial assets that are mostly located outside of Metro Manila into the company.
“For our next infusion, we are already considering properties from townships in key growth areas outside of Metro Manila where Mreit does not have a presence yet. This will further diversify our portfolio and allow us to tap into other growth centers around the country,” Kevin Andrew L. Tan, Mreit president and CEO, said.
The said announcement follows last month’s injection of P5.3 billion worth of assets via a property for share swap between Mreit and Megaworld.
“In line with our vision, we prepared a roadmap that calls for the expansion of Mreit’s property portfolio to 1 million square meters before the end of the decade,” Tan said during Mreit’s annual stockholders’ meeting.
“Given our access to Megaworld’s extensive office portfolio amounting to 1.4 million square meters, we believe that this is achievable. In 2022 alone, we are looking to acquire up to P20 billion worth of office properties from our sponsor.”
Mreit started its expansion drive shortly after its listing in October, when the company acquired four properties before the year-end for a total consideration of P9.1 billion.
As a result of this acquisition, the company is now looking at declaring dividends equivalent to P1 per share this year, which is 6 percent higher than originally contemplated in the real estate investment trust plan.
Once the pending acquisitions are completed, Mreit’s portfolio will cover 18 office properties in four Megaworld premier townships in Eastwood in Libis, Quezon City, McKinley in Taguig and Iloilo Business Park.
Mreit said its income for the first three months of the year came in at P687.17 million, a reversal of the previous year’s P12.47-million loss, while revenues came in at P901.56 million.
At the end of 2021, the company had a net income of P2 billion and revenues of P1.46 billion as it completed the acquisition of properties from its sponsor Megaworld.
Distributable income for the first quarter reached P639 million, 18 percent higher compared to the previous quarter as the company’s recent acquisitions provided their first full quarter contribution during the period.
The company earlier said it will acquire additional four prime properties worth P5.3 billion. The acquisition will be undertaken via a property for share swap and is subject to the approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Once completed, the acquisition will expand Mreit’s gross leasable area portfolio by 16 percent to 325,000 square meters.
“We hope to complete the acquisition within the month of May. We look forward to the completion of this deal as it will further cement Mreit’s presence in the Fort Bonifacio area, which continues to command one of the highest rental rates in the Philippines today,” Tan said.