Billionaire Manny Villar Readying REIT Offering in 2022

Billionaire businessman Manny Villar’s listed property firm’s Vista Land and Lifescapes (VLL) is still on track to launch an initial public offering of a real estate investment trust next year, “subject to market conditions, other commercial and legal considerations.” 

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the company referenced a report by the Manila Standard, which said it plans to spin off some of its office assets into an REIT.

The plan will follow the listing of several other REITs from some of the country’s biggest property development firms, including the Ayalas’ AREIT, the Gotianuns’ FILREIT, the Gokongweis’ RL Commercial REIT, the Tans’ MREIT, and Injap Sia’s DDMP REIT. 

Villar first announced plans to launch its own REIT listing earlier this year.

Vista Land currently has about 1.5 million square meters of gross floor areas across 31 malls, 63 commercial centers and seven BPO office spaces. 

The Manila Standard report also quoted Villar as saying that the group is planning to list a renewable energy company under its PAVI Green unit, which currently operates a 50-MW plant in Siquijor. VLL declined to confirm the report, however, saying that “any such company will be a different company from Vista Land and its existing subsidiaries.”

This year, the Villar Group conducted the successful IPO of its supermarket chain subsidiary ALLDay Marts Inc.

Meanwhile, his brother Virgilio Villar is going through with the IPO of his own medical distribution firm Medilines Distributors Inc., this month.

Villar, who is 71 years old, is currently ranked second in its annual list of richest Filipinos, with a net worth of $7.4 billion. He is behind only the Sy siblings of SM Investments Corp and SM Prime.