Villar-led Vista Land restructures capital for fund-raising moves

MANILA, Philippines – Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc., the real estate company that Sen. Manuel Villar founded, can proceed with a capital restructuring plan, which is part of moves to raise funds in the future without breaking foreign ownership rules.

On Thursday, November 29, Vista Land informed the Philippine Stock Exchange that it obtained the go-signal of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to reduce the par value of its preferred shares to P0.01 per share from P0.10.

Vista Land it would reclassify its preferred shares with a total par value of P900 million into 900 million common shares with a par value of P1.

The company, still led by family members of Sen. Villar, made this announcement weeks after a Supreme Court decision on the foreign ownership in giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT). The High Court said foreigners’ stake in preferred shares of PLDT must be computed as part of the 40% limit on foreign ownership of some local firms.

Real estate player Vista Land is covered by the 40% foreign ownership limit, which some firms used to skirt through their preferred shares.

Vista Land said the reclassification of the preferred shares increased its authorized common shares to 11.9 billion shares from 11 billion.

It disclosed that the stakes of current owners are not be diluted since no new common shares have been issued yet.

Vista Land has a market value of P42 billion based on the closing price of P5 per share on November 29.

It recently reported a January-to-September net income of P3.23 billion, a 24% increase from a year ago. It said this “record” sales will push its bottom line above its P4.2 billion goal for 2012.

“I am very confident that we will actually meet or exceed our guidance numbers for earnings this year, and based on our stock market performance, it seems investors believe so as well,” Manuel Paolo Villar, son of the senator and CEO of Vista Land, had said. 

Real estate sales have hiked over 18% in July-to-September, contributing to the stunning Philippine economic growth in the 3rd quarter of 7.1%. – Rappler.com