Insider Spotlight
The country’s oldest conglomerate has launched a series of market purchases of Ayala Land shares, whose stock suffered one of the steepest declines among the Philippines’ major listed property developers.
Since mid-June, Ayala has prominently announced three purchases of Ayala Land shares, with the latest transaction happening on July 10.
Ayala has not disclosed a repurchase of its own shares in about nine months, with its last buyback taking place on Oct. 10, 2025, stock exchange data showed.
Why Ayala is buying ALI
“ALI has been among the hardest-hit large-cap Philippine stocks amid the prolonged downturn in the domestic property sector, with its valuation falling to around 0.55 times price-to-book at one point—levels that imply an unusually pessimistic outlook,” Ron Acoba, chief investment strategist at Trading Edge Consultancy, told InsiderPH.
“From a capital allocation perspective, AC may see greater value in deploying excess cash into the subsidiary that offers the highest expected long-term return rather than repurchasing its own shares,” he added.
Ayala has earmarked P5 billion of its P20 billion buyback to acquire additional Ayala Land shares. That program has been in place for several years, with about half the amount already used up.
This is on top of Ayala Land’s own P10 billion share buyback program, which has been only partially utilized, with no repurchases disclosed since early June.
Balancing support and liquidity
Buybacks can improve the share price by reducing the number of tradable shares, thus making each remaining share relatively more valuable based on earnings.
But they could also turn off large investors who view them as reducing liquidity in the market, underscoring the balancing act between supporting the stock and maintaining trading liquidity.
A recovery play
Ayala stepped up its Ayala Land share purchases days after stock brokerage giant First Metro Securities downgraded the property developer’s price to P15.50 from P28 per share.
Ayala Land shares were trading at P15.66 each as of this writing.
“While AC also appears inexpensive, its upside could be moderated by the diversified nature of its portfolio. Several of its major businesses are likely to deliver only modest earnings growth over the near term,” Acoba said.
“Even if AC’s valuation rerates, the pace of appreciation may be more gradual than that of a cyclical recovery play like ALI,” he added.
Buying into the slump
Ayala Land shares had fallen as much as 44 percent from their 2026 high to this year’s low of P12.58 per share.
The stock has since rebounded more than 20 percent from those lows but remains about 30 percent below where it started 2026.
Stock exchange disclosures show Ayala has been buying Ayala Land shares at average prices ranging from P13.07 to P15.46.
“AC’s accumulation of ALI shares can be viewed not only as a show of support for a subsidiary whose stock has been disproportionately punished, but also as a strategic investment in what management may perceive as the group’s most deeply discounted asset with the greatest upside potential over the next several years,” Acoba explained.
Miguel R. Camus has been a reporter covering various domestic business topics since 2009.
