GOTIANUN-led Filinvest Land Inc. (FLI) is spending P500 million this year to fund the completion of office spaces intended for the business process outsourcing (BPO) market.

President and chief executive Joseph M. Yap said Wednesday, the amount is on top of the P6-billion capital spending it has allotted for the year.

FLI intends to raise its office-building portfolio, with four new buildings with a gross leasable area (GLA) of 59,000 square meters (sq m) at Northgate Cyberzone in Alabang, Muntinlupa. The buildings are up for completion this year.

“We’ve also started construction of the two BPO office buildings at One Oasis Ortigas, which should add another 20,000 sq m of GLA. This should increase our portfolio by 73 percent to 187,000 sq m by the end of this year,” Yap told reporters at the sidelines of the company’s stockholders’ meeting.

Meanwhile, the company’s P6-billion capex will bankroll over 30 new projects and phases for launch this year.

“We plan to go into new areas, starting with our first residential subdivision in Butuan City as well offer more of the inner-city residential mid-rise buildings (MRBs) similar to One Oasis Ortigas,” added Yap.

FLI, whose shares are traded at the stock exchange, has already acquired properties located in Sta. Mesa, Manila and Marcos Highway, Marikina City to house the proposed MRBs. The company is now in talks for a third site.

Controlled by the Gotianuns, who also owns East West Bank, FLI reported a net profit of P1.7 billion in 2007 from P872 million a year earlier as sales improved to nearly 50 percent. Revenues reached P5.1 billion from the previous year’s P3.5 billion.

The growth in both revenues and net income is largely attributable to the strong results of the real-estate development business, boosted by the full year contribution of rental income generated by the investment properties acquired in September 2006.

For 2008, Yap expects its net income to grow by 20 percent to 25 percent as it expects sales to post continuous growth.

“Our growth this year would be driven by the launch of our new projects with an estimated sales value of P10 billion,” he said.

IN line with a strategy to dispose of non-core assets, Benpres Holdings Corp. of the Lopezes said it has sold its 18-percent ownership in Professional Services Inc.—owner and operator of the upscale The Medical City—for P600 million.

Filinvest to spend P500M on BPO space

GOTIANUN-led Filinvest Land Inc. (FLI) is spending P500 million this year to fund the completion of office spaces intended for the business process outsourcing (BPO) market.

SINGAPORE—Oracle Corp., the world’s largest enterprise software developer, is anticipating rapidly growing demand for improved Business Intelligence (BI) solutions with far more powerful applications that go beyond simple data collection and reporting.

CEBU CITY—SPi, a unit of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) that provides outsourcing and offshoring (O and O) solutions, is rapidly expanding operations here in an effort to transfer a chunk of its projects into the country from the US.

PUBLICLY traded Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corp. said its net income in 2007 grew 515 percent to P289 million from P47 million a year earlier on the back of higher revenues from its nickel unit, Berong Nickel Corp.

There are three dates that the public investors generally monitor and remember when a listed company declares dividends. To illustrate: The board of directors of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. approved on March 26, 2008, which is the approval date, a P0.825-per-share dividend, which it will pay its stockholders as of April 30, 2008, which is the record date, on May 27, 2008, which is the payment date.