Anchor Land net income rises sharply on niche market offering

HIGH-END developer Anchor Land Holdings on Monday said its net income rose sharply in the first quarter of the year on the back of strong sales, especially to its niche market, despite the economic slowdown.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the company—which has established a strong niche market in the ethnic Chinese community—said net income grew 83 percent to P82.94 million from January to March compared with the P45.24 million in the same period last year.

The property developer said gross revenues were up by 91 percent to P454.62 million from January to March, higher than last year’s P237.61 million.

“Our sustained profitability during the first three months puts us in a position to at least match, if not surpass, our record earnings last year,” Stephen Lee, Anchor Land chairman, said.
Lee said the company’s first quarter real estate sales grew to P452.53 million, almost double from last year’s P236.88 million during the same period.

The company executive said the surge in revenues came from the higher number of units sold and higher project completion percentage as the company continues to enjoy steady support from its niche market, while tapping into new segments that are equally lucrative.

Anchor Land has completed the company’s second luxury condominium, the 39-story Mayfair Tower along UN Avenue in Manila, while the third, Mandarin Square (under its subsidiary Manila Towers Development Corp.), is also nearing completion.

The company earlier reported that its revenues last year jumped almost threefold to P1.36 billion from P487 million in 2007 despite the unraveling global financial markets that has seen many developers scale down real estate projects.

Anchor Land’s 2008 net income more than doubled to P236 million from the year ago level of P103 million, sustaining its robust profitability for the second straight year.

- Darwin G. Amojelar

ManilaTimes.Net