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Filinvest Development Corporation (FDC) is one of the Philippines’ leading conglomerates, with interests in real estate development and leasing, financial and banking services and the sugar business. FDC is controlled by the Gotianun Family through ALG Holdings Corporation. FDC was incorporated on April 27, 1973 and has evolved from businesses established by Mr. Andrew L. Gotianun Sr. since 1955. Originally engaged in the small-scale financing of second-hand cars, the Gotianun Family later expanded into consumer finance in partnership with foreign institutions, such as Chase Manhattan Bank, Westinghouse Electric Corporation and Ford Philippines. By the early 1980s, the Gotianun Family’s Filinvest Credit Corporation had become one of the leading consumer finance companies in the Philippines in terms of assets. Over time, the “Filinvest” name has become established and well-recognized in the Philippines. FDC coordinates several administrative functions among its subsidiary companies, including project development, financing, evaluating potential acquisitions by its constituent companies, land acquisition and construction services, among others.
I. Real Estate Business ▼ II. Financial and Banking Services ▼ III. Sugar Business ▼
In 1967, the Gotianun Family entered the real estate business through the incorporation of Filinvest Realty Corporation, which engaged in the development of residential subdivisions. In the mid-80s, the Gotianun Family consolidated their real estate interests in FDC after divesting their shares in two family-owned banks, Family Bank and Trust Company and the Insular Bank of Asia and America. By 1990, FDC expanded its product line to include the development and sale of low-cost and medium-cost housing units. Currently, the great majority of FDC’s interests in real estate are through subsidiaries Filinvest Land, Inc. (FLI) and Filinvest Alabang, Inc. (FAI).
Filinvest Land, Inc., originally named Citation Homes, Inc., was incorporated on November 24, 1989. Its name was changed to Filinvest Land, Inc. (FLI) on July 12, 1993. It began commercial operations in August 1993 after FDC spun off its real estate operations and transferred all related assets and liabilities to FLI in exchange for shares in FLI. FLI was listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) on October 25, 1993. FDC remains FLI’s largest shareholder, beneficially owning approximately 51%.
FLI’s business has historically focused on the development and sale of affordable and middle-market residential lots and housing units to lower and middle-income markets throughout the Philippines. Filinvest, as a group, has developed over 1,800 hectares of land, and provided home sites for over 100,000 families, which makes it one of the largest home providers in the Philippines today. In recent years, FLI has expanded its residential business to include other income segments (high-end) and themed residential projects with a leisure component, such as farm estates and developments anchored by sports and resort clubs. FLI has substantial experience in developing and introducing new formats to the residential real estate market. The Company intends to be at the forefront of market changes by continually innovating and introducing new project formats to anticipate and meet market demands. Recent innovations include:
FLI is also a pioneer in the development of very large master-planned township developments which provide a convenient mix of commercial, industrial and residential uses. FLI currently has about 70 projects located in 30 cities and municipalities nationwide. The Company has an extensive network of sales offices, in-house sales agents and independent brokers located throughout the Philippines, as well as accredited brokers in countries and regions with large Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) and expatriate Filipino populations (such as the Middle East, Japan, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States). Approximately half of FLI’s real estate sales are directly or indirectly derived from Overseas Filipinos (OFs).
FLI has, over the years, accumulated an extensive, well-located, low-cost landbank. As of end-July 2007, FLI’s landbank stood at 2,350 hectares, bulk of which is located just outside Metro Manila in the nearby provinces of Rizal, Bulacan, Batangas, Cavite and Laguna, as well as in growth areas such as Cebu, Davao and General Santos City in South Cotabato province.
In 2006, FLI acquired three strategic assets: (1) The Festival Supermall, in Filinvest Corporate City (FCC) in Muntinlupa (southern Metro Manila), (2) A 60% stake in Filinvest Asia Corporation which owns half of PBCom Tower within the Makati Central Business District, and (3) A 60% stake in Cyberzone Properties, Inc., developer of office buildings in Northgate Cyberzone, a 10-hectare Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) office park with multinational tenants. Festival Supermall is the largest shopping center in Southern Metro Manila with a gross area of 200,000 square meters. It has over 600 retail stores and outlets, ten cinemas, a 36-lane bowling center and two themed amusement centers. It also has exhibit, trade and music halls which are leased out to events like trade fairs. PBCom Tower is currently the tallest building in the Philippines with 52 floors. It is located at the corner of Ayala Avenue and Herrera Street in Makati City. Filinvest Asia Corporation owns 36,000 square meters of leasable office space in PBCom Tower, which is leased out to about 30 tenants which include multinational companies and BPO firms. Meanwhile, Northgate Cyberzone, the BPO campus within Filinvest Corporate City, currently has eight (8) office buildings with a gross leasable area (GLA) of 71,000 square meters. Four (4) buildings are under construction which will add more than 59,000 square meters of leasable space before the end of 2008. This makes FLI the leader in developing offices with infrastructure to support IT-related and BPO businesses in the growing southern Metro Manila area. By the end of 2008, FLI will have a total BPO office portfolio of 167,000 square meters of GLA, making it one of the top BPO landlords in the Philippines.
Filinvest Alabang, Inc. (FAI) was incorporated on August 25, 1993 in connection with the joint development of Filinvest Corporate City in Alabang with the Government. FAI is 80% owned by FDC and 20% owned by FLI. FAI focuses specifically on the development of mixed-use urban developments in Metro Manila. Its current project is Filinvest Corporate City, a 244-hectare mixed-use development project located at the southern end of Metro Manila and adjacent to the South Expressway in Alabang. FAI uses modern, ecological urban planning and design in developing Filinvest Corporate City as an alternative to Metro Manila's Makati district. Filinvest Corporate City is an integrated development that mixes office, retail, residential and leisure components in a complementary manner and provides for a balance of recurring rental income from office and retail rental and residential sales income. Filinvest Corporate City is being developed pursuant to a joint venture agreement between the Government and FAI. Under the joint venture agreement, FAI retains a 74% interest in the development. Since the start of its development in 1995, FCC has grown to become a major destination in southern Manila that services all segments of the population with a wide array of retail, office and residential developments. The corporate city is home to key anchors such as the Asian Hospital and a fast growing office base in the Northgate Cyberzone. The second busiest transport terminal in Metro Manila is in the immediate vicinity, making FCC a major gateway for commuters going into and out of Metro Manila from the south. The ongoing construction of the extension of the Skyway elevated road to Alabang will significantly enhance the value of FCC and further increase its attractiveness as the location of choice for offices and residential living in the South of Metro Manila.
FDC is developing two projects on land it directly owns. These are Seascapes Resort Town on Mactan Island, Cebu and a residential condominium in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, Metro Manila. Once these projects are completed, FDC does not expect to directly pursue development projects, but intends to do so only through its subsidiaries II. Financial and Banking Services FDC incorporated East West Banking Corporation (EWBC) in March 1994. The decision was based on the Group's re-entry into the financial and banking services industry, an area in which FDC had gained previous experience in the 1970s and 1980s through its ownership of Family Bank and Trust Company, a universal bank, and Insular Bank of Asia and America. FDC has a 60% stake in EWBC. EWBC is a medium-sized commercial bank in the Philippines that provides a range of services to consumer and corporate clients. EWBC's principal banking products and services include deposits, cash management, commercial and consumer loans, trade facilities, remittance, foreign exchange, fixed income securities investments, derivatives and trust services. EWBC has recently redefined its focus to aggressively reposition itself to capitalize on its competencies as a medium-sized bank with a nationwide presence in the Philippines and to focus on developing its banking services for the corporate middle-market and retail customers. As of September 30, 2007, EWBC had 76 branches. III. Sugar Business On June 29, 2007, FDC further diversified its businesses by acquiring 100% of the shares of Pacific Sugar Holdings Corporation (PSHC), a sugar company incorporated on June 5, 1989, from ALG Holdings in exchange for 1.55 billion shares of FDC. PSHC wholly owns three Mindanao-based sugar companies, Davao Sugar Central Co., Inc. (DSCC), Cotabato Sugar Central Co., Inc. (CSCC) and High Yield Sugar Farms Corporation (HYSFC) PSHC markets and trades all of the raw sugar produced or refined by the Sugar Subsidiaries and sells their molasses by-product. In CY 2006-07, the Sugar Subsidiaries had a combined milling capacity of 9,000 tons of sugarcane per day (TCD) and a refining capacity of 300 metric tons (MT) of refined sugar per day. PSHC is currently augmenting its milling and refining capacity through an expansion and modernization program which is expected to increase milling capacity to 15,000 TCD and refining capacity to 1,025 MT of refined sugar per day by CY 2008-09. PSHC is also considering plans to produce ethanol through fermentation of the sugar by-product, molasses, and to benefit from the mandated use of ethanol in the Philippines under the Republic Act No. 9367, which was signed into law in January 2007.
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