Villar Land Holdings Corp., controlled by tycoon Manuel Villar Jr., has retained Punongbayan & Araullo as its external auditor for the current year, following auditor pushback last year on a proposed land revaluation that was ultimately not adopted.
Villar Land shareholders approved P&A’s reappointment at the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting last Dec. 29, 2025, extending the firm’s audit mandate.
P&A, a member of Grant Thornton International, has been auditing the company’s finances since 2015.
P&A shoots down sky-high revaluation
The issue began when Villar Land management in 2025 proposed valuing newly acquired Villar City land at market prices instead of its original purchase cost.
That shift would have allowed the company to record a large paper gain worth over P1 trillion, even though no sale had taken place and no cash was generated.
After extended back-and-forth during the audit review, the final audited financial statements kept the cost-based approach, resulting in much lower reported earnings but aligning the accounts with accounting standards.
The move further signaled that P&A's pushback was handled as part of the normal review process rather than as a breakdown in working relations.
Villar Land Holdings, Corp. has lost roughly half of its market capitalization since the issue came to light.
The stock is now trading at P1,118 per share, leaving the company with a market capitalization of about P720 billion—still placing it among the most richly valued property firms in the Philippine stock market.
—Edited by Miguel R. Camus
