It’s this built-for-crisis approach that Robinsons Land Corp.’s management, under president and CEO Mybelle Aragon-GoBio, argues is allowing the company to keep major commitments, spending and expansion intact.
“We’ve gone through a lot of crises, right? This is not the first time,” she said during a media briefing after the company’s annual stockholders meeting.
“And, of course, this is of a different nature. But then, I think, if you have a playbook for handling crises, then you’d be well positioned to do that,” added Aragon-GoBio, who is now on her second year as company CEO.
Cash cushion
Robinsons Land entered the downturn with a strong balance sheet, ending the quarter with P21.7 billion in cash and most of its assets funded by shareholder capital instead of debt.
The builder, which has been paring down obligations for years, sees this cushion helping it comfortably manage its roughly P10.4 billion short-term debt and P29.2 billion long-term loans.
More importantly, this gives the company enough financial headroom to pursue expansion while competitors scale back and reassess.
One example is Ayala Land Inc., which was forced to pause ultra luxury tower Laurean Residences and scrap a new Quezon City tower as it grapples with challenging conditions in the residential market.
Vision 5-25-50 stays on track
But Aragon-GoBio doesn’t expect RLC to lose steam anytime soon given its prudent approach and heavy reliance on malls, offices, hotels and logistics, accounting for 73 percent of revenues last year.
“We were very intentional. Early on, we made timely decisions, and we were very disciplined about our budgeting,” she explained.
She admitted that RLC, part of the Gokongwei conglomerate JG Summit Holdings, did reassess the market during this crisis.
“But then we came to a conclusion that we are pushing ahead with all of our projects as committed. And this is the pipeline of developments that we had earlier cascaded through our Vision 5-25-50. So we’re pushing through with those,” she said.
The strategy, which defines growth objectives for its 50th anniversary in 2030, calls for a 50 percent expansion in mall gross leasable area to 2.4 million square meters, a 50 percent increase in office space, a 25 percent increase in hotel room keys and a doubling of logistics capacity under RLX.
Ultimately, it targets P25 billion in net income by 2030 through a larger portfolio of malls, offices, hotels and logistics assets.
RLC rated a “buy”
Investors appear to be rewarding that conviction with Robinsons Land shares are up around 10 percent this year and over 36 percent in the past 12 months.
This makes it the only major nationwide Philippine developer still trading in the green in 2026 as fears over debt, condominium oversupply and weaker consumer spending hit some of its peers.
In fact, major stockbrokerage house First Metro Securities rates the firm a “buy” with a target price of P21 per share, based on a report issued last April 14. The stock is trading at about P17.88 apiece.
“We favor RLC for its high recurring income base and strong balance sheet, which support earnings visibility despite a weak residential market,” according to FirstMetroSec, whose research team is led by Mark Angeles.
“With elevated inventory, we do not expect near‑term launches, but recurring income from malls, offices, hotels, and logistics should offset this drag,” it added.
Costs under control
These factors keep the company on pace with its expansion targets even as construction costs climbed.
“We are very much aware that certain construction inputs, the cost of those have significantly gone up,” Aragon-GoBio said.
“And as we monitored the project costs and the anticipated increases in those, we are still in a position where our contingencies are able to cover sufficiently and still leave us some buffers,” she added.
Defense mode
This also reflected in first quarter earnings opening the year strong.
RLC grew first quarter revenues 11 percent to P12.28 billion and net income 9 percent to P4.4 billion as recurring income from malls, offices and hotels continued to anchor growth.
During the meeting, the company declared a record P1-per-share cash dividend for 2025, lifting its payout ratio to an all-time high 36 percent, well above its long-standing 20 percent policy floor.
Shareholders on record as of May 26 should receive their checks by June 8 this year.
With most of its earnings engines still firing, RLC could afford to sound confident. But if the builder was careful during the boom times, management argues defense is the game it plays best.
“We don’t want to be too complacent and just brush it off and say, ‘we’re okay, we’re not gonna be affected’. We’re still tracking it, still tracking how the market is evolving and we’re still putting up more guardrails, more defensive strategies where those would be needed,” Aragon-GoBio said.
Miguel R. Camus has been a reporter covering various domestic business topics since 2009.
