ALI weakness pulls down Ayala first-half profit
Ayala Corp.’s core earnings fell in the first half of 2026 as weakness at property arm Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) weighed on the conglomerate, just as the developer lost its place in a key MSCI benchmark.
The Zobel family-led conglomerate said on Thursday that its core net income declined by 7 percent to P22.1 billion from a year earlier.
On a reported basis, Ayala’s net income slipped by a milder 2 percent to P22.9 billion, reflecting the net impact of one-off items during the period.
The decline came as ALI’s net income fell 19 percent to P11.5 billion amid persistent macroeconomic headwinds that dragged property development revenues lower.
Adding to the pressure, ALI is set to leave the MSCI Philippines Standard Index and move to the MSCI Philippines Small Cap Index following MSCI’s August review.
ALI was the sole deletion from the Philippine Standard Index, with no local company replacing it. It was also the only addition to the Philippines Small Cap Index.
The changes will take effect after the close of trading on Aug. 31.
Trading Edge chief investment strategist Ron Acoba said the reclassification would have no fundamental impact on ALI. But he said it could affect the stock’s visibility among institutional investors whose investment universe is limited to constituents of the main index.
“Ayala was buying ALI in the open market in the hopes of pushing it up to make the cut-off, but it was not successful in doing so,” Acoba said.
