Ayala tags 2024 as ‘strongest year ever’

Strength in its core businesses—including banking and real estate—offset losses in the portfolio companies of Ayala Corp., resulting in its net income rising by 10 percent to an all-time high of P42 billion last year.

In a stock exchange filing on Friday, the country’s oldest conglomerate said its core income, which excludes one-off costs, likewise climbed by a tenth to P45 billion, also its highest in history.

“2024 was Ayala’s strongest year ever,” Ayala president and CEO Cezar Consing said in a statement. “We continue to be reliant on our core business units but 2025 should be an inflection point for our smaller and newer businesses.”

The central bank’s move to start a monetary policy easing cycle buoyed the earnings of Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) by 20 percent to a record P62 billion.

This was despite a 21-percent increase in its operating expenses to P83.8 billion, which were due to higher manpower, technology and volume-related costs.

BPI’s top line likewise expanded by 23 percent to P170.1 billion.

As of end-December, assets at the country’s third-largest bank stood at P3.3 trillion, up by 14.9 percent.

Meanwhile, real estate giant Ayala Land Inc.’s bottom line expanded by 15 percent to P28.2 billion on growth across all its business units, particularly residential, commercial and industrial.

This pushed revenues higher by 21 percent to P180.7 billion.

Reservation sales climbed by 12 percent to P127.1 billion on high demand for properties in the premium segment and for horizontal projects outside Metro Manila.

Uptick on renewables

Power under ACEN Corp. ended the year with P9.4 billion in earnings, representing a 27-percent uptick on the back of renewables output jumping by a quarter to 5,596 gigawatt-hours.

At present, ACEN has 6,978 megawatts of attributable capacity.

The net income of Globe Telecom Inc., on the other hand, dipped by 1 percent to P24.3 billion on lower one-time gains from tower sales.

Excluding nonrecurring costs, Globe’s core income expanded by 14 percent to P21.5 billion.

As for Ayala’s portfolio companies, AC Health widened its net loss to P610 million from a “slightly negative” net income the previous year due to one-time impairment in KonsultaMD and costs related to its cancer hospital. Ayala did not disclose the financials of AC Health in 2023.

At the same time, AC Logistics’ bleeding worsened by 22 percent to P2.2 billion on nonrecurring expenses at Air21 Holdings Inc.

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AC Industrials, on the other hand, pared its losses by 67 percent to P2.4 billion due to lower impairments.

Capital market

The conglomerate plans to raise up to P31.5 billion via a preferred share offer and loans from two Japanese banks to fund its expansion plans.

In a separate filing, Ayala said its board of directors had approved the issuance of preferred shares with a base amount of up to P10 billion.

Another P10 billion would be offered in case of high demand.

Ayala is likewise set to get up to $200 million (around P11.5 billion) in samurai loans from Mizuho Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.

Samurai loans are yen-denominated bonds issued in Tokyo by non-Japanese firms.

This comes after the Japan Credit Rating Agency Ltd. assigned an “A-” foreign currency long-term issuer rating to Ayala, allowing it to tap yen-denominated loans and bankroll pipeline projects “at competitive rates.”