Ayala Corp spending P190B for 2014 expansion

MANILA, Philippines – Ayala Corporation is ramping up its capital spending this year to sustain the double-digit growth in its earnings.

The country’s oldest conglomerate earmarked P190 billion for its 2014 capital spending, up 58.3% from P120 billion last year. The amount will be used for the expansion of its core real estate, banking, telecommunications and water businesses, as well as its new businesses like power and infrastructure.

Ayala owns Ayala Land Inc., Bank of the Philippine Islands, Globe Telecom Inc. and Manila Water Company Inc.

The strong performance of Ayala’s core units pushed its net income up by 22% to P12.8 billion in 2013.

Its consolidated revenues reached P159.4 billion, up 22% from 2012.

“We are encouraged by the strong performance across our business units as they reap the benefits of the aggressive growth strategies they started a few years back. In turn, we have also been able to optimize earnings and value at the parent level as we continued to rebalance our portfolio and adjusted our ownership, particularly in our banking and water units, over the past year,” Ayala president and chief operating officer Fernando Zobel de Ayala said.

“As we ramp up our power business and as the economic environment remains sound, we are optimistic we can sustain double-digit earnings growth through 2014,” Zobel added.

Ayala has interests in Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corporation’s 270-megawatt coal plant in Batangas, the 33-MW Bangui Bay wind farm of Northwind Power Development Corporation in Ilocos Norte, and the 600-MW coal plant of GNPower in Mariveles, Bataan. – Rappler.com