MANILA – Filinvest Land, Inc.’s (FLI) board of directors has approved the transition of its wholly-owned subsidiary, Cyberzone Properties, Inc. (CPI), into a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) company.
“We are looking forward to listing CPI as a REIT company because we believe that this will unlock the value of our office leasing business. Filinvest has a growing portfolio of recurring income projects and significant prime office properties in Alabang, Cebu, and Clark to continue to grow this business. A REIT listing will enable acceleration of the growth of this business line,” FLI president and chief executive officer Josephine Gotianun-Yap said in a statement Thursday.
The CPI is intended to be listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange in compliance with the minimum public ownership requirements under Philippine securities regulations and the Real Estate Investment Trust Act of 2009 and its implementing rules and regulations, and under the terms and conditions as FLI’s board of directors may approve.
A certain number of operating office buildings, including buildings leased out to traditional and multinational business process outsourcing (BPO) companies, will comprise the property portfolio of the REIT company.
These office buildings are located in Northgate Cyberzone in Filinvest City, Alabang and Filinvest Cyberzone Cebu in Cebu City.
The Northgate Cyberzone in Filinvest City is an 18.7-hectare business park that is registered with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority and was designed to cater to BPO companies.
It is home to the Philippines’ largest district cooling system that helps reduce energy consumption, provides greater efficiency, lowers the initial capital investment, reduces carbon dioxide emissions, and enhances real estate value by freeing up building space for other uses.
Filinvest’s BPO buildings have continued to be fully operational during the pandemic and CPI’s office rental revenues increased by 16 percent year on year in the first nine months of 2020 to PHP2.46 billion.
One of the pioneer providers of office space to the BPO industry in the country, Filinvest has 43 operating and under construction office buildings covering more than 824,000 square meters of gross leasable area. (PR)
