MREIT to gobble up P16B worth of Taguig office assets
MREIT Inc., the real estate investment trust of property giant Megaworld Corp., expects a portfolio boost with the infusion of nine office properties worth P16.22 billion.
The company told the local bourse on Thursday that its board of directors had given the green light to inject the assets from its sponsor through a property-for-share swap transaction.
The properties covered by the deal include: Science Hub Towers 1, 3 and 4; 8 Campus Place Buildings A, B and C; One Campus Place Buildings A and B; and South East Asian Campus (SEAC). These are all Grade A office properties located within Philippine Economic Zone Authority-registered zones at McKinley Hill in Taguig City.
It noted that some of the assets, such as the 8 Campus Place Buildings A and B and SEAC were Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified, considered a symbol of sustainability.
Once completed, MREIT will have an additional 165,477 square meters (sq m) of gross leasable area (GLA), pushing its total office GLA to 646,891 sq m.
“This latest infusion reflects MREIT’s continued focus on scaling up with high-quality, income-generating assets in prime locations,” said Jose Arnulfo Batac, president and CEO of MREIT.
“These assets further strengthen portfolio quality and support our objective of delivering stable and sustainable returns to our shareholders,” Arnulfo added.
The firm said it was already gearing up for another wave of asset infusion set for next year, which would include about 750,000 sq m of GLA.
Its chair, Kevin Tan, said earlier this month that MREIT would start infusing mall assets by the second half of 2026.
Scaling up
While no value was mentioned, MREIT was looking at adding about 370,000 sq m.
The group makes these aggressive moves as it hopes to build a million-sq m leasing portfolio by 2027.
Late in November, MREIT secured regulatory clearance to boost its capital stock to P8 billion from P5 billion, allowing the firm to issue new shares and raise fresh funds to acquire properties.
