The World Bank Group’s (WBG) International Finance Corp. (IFC) is considering another round of investment financing support for Ayala Land Inc. (ALI), including for the property giant’s ongoing renovation and expansion of its flagship malls to make them “greener.”

A World Bank document seen by Manila Bulletin showed that the board of IFC—the WBG’s private-sector lending arm—was scheduled last July 3 to discuss its proposed investment in ALI for the “AyalaLand SLF2 Project.”

So far, no details are available on IFC’s website on the new SLF2 Project.

To recall, ALI last year secured a $250-million, or ₱14.3-billion, loan from IFC to fund its net-zero emissions ambition, including the “greening” of 10 malls in Cebu and Metro Manila, under their first SLF.

IFC disclosed in October 2024 that it had invested in ALI’s up to eight-year sustainability-linked loan (SLL). IFC earlier on approved this financing and signed the loan deal with ALI in July last year.

It was ALI’s first-ever sustainability-linked financing package aimed at decarbonizing its commercial real estate portfolio.

Loan proceeds will be partly spent to renovate the following flagship shopping malls: Ayala Center in Cebu City; Glorietta 1, 2, 3, and 4, as well as Greenbelt 2, 3, 4, and 5 in Makati City; and TriNoMa in Quezon City.

Earlier IFC documents disclosed this ALI project shall “involve internal and external refurbishment only, with no changes to the existing footprint” of these malls, in order to turn them into so-called “green” buildings.

IFC had said ALI and its wholly owned subsidiary Makati Development Corp. (MDC) aims to finish all demolition and construction work for this malls renovation project by end-2026.

Ultimately, this project will allow ALI to boast of the biggest EDGE Zero Carbon property portfolio in the world, while significantly slashing its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which contribute to climate change.

Through this financing, ALI targets to jack up to 1.5 million square meters (sqm) by end-2025, from about 350,000 sqm in 2024, its office space compliant with IFC’s Zero Carbon Certification. ALI already has the largest EDGE Zero Carbon-certified portfolio in the country, IFC had noted.

Also, ALI wants GHG emissions lessened by 42 percent by end-2030, across its commercial property portfolio of hotels, malls, and offices.

In April last year, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed with ALI subsidiary AyalaLand Hotels and Resorts Corp. (AHRC) for its projected 2,826 hotel-room portfolio by 2026 to also become EDGE Zero Carbon-certified.

IFC had cited that ALI is the Philippines’ biggest property developer, with over 11,000 hectares (ha) of land bank and 52 estates across the country.

The publicly listed ALI belongs to Ayala Corp., the oldest diversified conglomerate in the Philippines.

According to the WBG’s new country partnership framework (CPF) for the Philippines covering the period July 2025 to June 2031—which coincides with the Washington-based multilateral lender’s fiscal years 2026 to 2031—IFC would mobilize an estimated $4-5 billion in long-term commitments for Philippine firms.

Following a cumulative $1.9 billion in commitments from 2018 to 2025, “going forward, IFC will continue building its program around eight priority areas with climate and digitalization as cross-cutting themes,” the WBG said in the latest Philippine CPF, as exclusively reported by Manila Bulletin.

“IFC aims to ramp up its new commitments from around $400-600 million per year in earlier years of the CPF to around $1 billion in [the] second half,” the CPF document read.

IFC also plans to convert about $29.6 million worth in its advisory portfolio in the Philippines into potential investments, specifically in the areas of affordable and resilient housing, capital market development, climate finance, digitalization, financial inclusion, green and resilient buildings and cities, private-sector investment promotion and reforms, as well as public-private partnerships (PPPs).