Share price of property developer Italpinas Development Corp. sizzled in its debut Monday at the Philippine Stock Exchange after announcing expansion and the acceleration of current projects over the next two years.
Italpinas shares opened at a high of P5.40 apiece, up 50 percent from the IPO price of P3.60 before closing at P4.22.
Italpinas chairman and chief operating officer Romulo Nati said in an interview following the listing of the shares the company would use the bulk of the IPO proceeds to expand its portfolio by acquiring land for future development and venturing into hotels, office and commercial developments.
“The access to equity market will enhance our capability to develop more projects. The number of projects that we will be doing will grow exponentially,” he said.
Nati said the company was in initial discussions with other companies for possible partnershipd in the hotels, office, commercial and tourism-related projects.
“We may announce something in 2016,” Nati said.
Italpinas, prior to the initial public offering, was just building one project every two years. The company now plans to accelerate its activity to three to five projects over the next two years.
Italpinas president Jose Leviste III said the company was also looking to take a broader step after raising as much as P207 million in the proceeds from the maiden share sale.
Leviste said Italpinas was poised to enter in markets that had not yet been penetrated by other big players.
Italpinas launched its first project in Cagayan de Oro, a twin-tower mixed-use development called Primavera Residences. Big property developers like Ayala Land Inc., Filinvest Land Inc. and Vista Land & Lifescapes Inc. later entered the Cagayan de Oro market
“We are currently studying where the next growth is, the growth within the growth,” Leviste said.
He said the company would study the demographic growth of an area in terms of population and consumer spending in choosing the area for a planned expansion.
The company is also focused on areas with growing number of migrant Filipino workers.
The company has identified land acquisition targets in Lipa Batangas; Cagayan de Oro in Misamis Occidental; Subic in Zambales; Montelago in Oriental Mindoro; Dumaguete in Negros Oriental; and Iloilo City. It is also looking at properties in Camiguin and northern Luzon.
The company is currently developing a 1,800 square-meter lot in Sto. Tomas, Batangas to build a residential condominium targeting employees working in several industrial zones surrounding the property.
