Mitsubishi Corporation to Develop Office Building in the Philippines; Targets BPO Industry

Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) is pleased to announce the launch of a new office development project (34 stories; GFA: approximately 60,000 m²) in Makati City in the Philippines. Makati is home to one of the biggest business districts in Metro Manila, the national capital region of the Philippines. The project is based on a tie-up with Century Properties Group Inc. (CPG), with MC acquiring 40% of shares in a special purpose company owned by CPG.

 

Combining CPG’s rich and extensive local expertise with the know-how MC has gained from real estate developments in Japan and overseas, the project aims to add significant value to the real estate market by developing high quality office spaces for rental. In terms of financing, Bank of the Philippine Islands, a major local bank owned by Ayala Corporation, one of the oldest and largest business groups in the Philippines, will finance a part of the development cost for the project in order to improve capital efficiency.

 

The Philippines has recorded remarkably high economic growth for the past three years with GDP growth rates above 6%. Buoyed by the continuing “demographic dividend” that has resulted from an increasing younger labor force and a stable government, the Philippines is said to have the highest growth potential among South East Asian nations. The Philippines is also one of the top BPO*1 destinations in the world. Due to high literacy rates among the Filipino workforce and with English as one of country’s official languages, the industry has not only seen robust growth but has also become one of the main drivers of the nation’s economic growth. In 2015, the number of persons employed in the BPO sector exceeded 1 million, and revenues from the industry now account for approximately 6% of GDP. Increasing demand for BPO services in the Philippines has led to a shortage of office space in some of the main business districts across the country, creating greater demand for development that can satisfy the high market standards required by BPO firms. This project will therefore be introducing new office space in order to help meet that demand.

 

In addition to strengthening ties with local enterprises in the Philippines such as CPG, MC is also proactively seeking to expand its involvement in the growing real estate development markets of other South East Asian countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Myanmar, leveraging the advantages that come with Japan’s advanced technologies and sophisticated product planning.

 

 

*1 BPO refers to Business Process Outsourcing, a kind of outsourcing that involves contracting out the operations and responsibilities of a specific business process to a third-party service provider, such as a call center or a software engineering firm.

(1) Mitsubishi Corporation (MC)

1. Head Office : 3-1, Marunouchi 2 Chome, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 100-8086 Japan

2. Year Established : 1954

3. Business :  Mitsubishi Corporation has seven Business Groups which develop operations in the diverse fields of Global Environment & Infrastructure; Energy; Metals; Industrial Finance, Logistics & Development; Machinery; Chemicals; and Living Essentials; In addition to these Business Groups, MC has also recently established a Business Service Group. Through these Business Groups, MC serves customers around the world in virtually every industry.

4. Representative : Ken Kobayashi, President and CEO

 

(2) Century Properties Group Inc. (CPG)

1. Head Office : Makati, Metro Manila, Republic of the Philippines

2. Year Established : 1986

3. Business : CPG is one of the major real estate developers in the country. Listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange, CPG has achieved success over the past 30 years in investing in, managing, and building over 20 residential, office, and retail properties.

4. Representative : Jose. E. B. Antonio, Chairman and CEO

 

(3) Project Summary

Location : Makati City, Metro Manila, Republic of the Philippines

Building : Forbes Media Tower

Land Area : 3,166 m²

GFA : 60,769 m²

Floor : 34 Stories

Asset Type : Office

Completion : 2019

Project Cost : PHP 450 million