Top township developer Megaworld Corp. continues to lighten up on its stake in MREIT Inc., this time selling ₱2.24 billion worth of the real estate investment trust’s (REIT) shares, in preparation for its fourth wave of asset infusion.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), Megaworld said it sold 168.63 million common MREIT shares at an offer price of ₱13.28 per share under a block sale transaction.

The shares sold are equivalent to 4.53 percent of MREIT’s outstanding capital, and the sale raises its free float level to 40 percent, above the minimum public ownership requirement of 33 percent for REITs.

Abacus Securities Corp. noted that the shares, sold at a discount of five percent from Tuesday’s close, “is very likely in preparation for what has been telegraphed as the latest round of asset injection.”

“With float shares now totaling 1.58 billion, MREIT can issue up to ₱13.78 billion (about 27 percent of the current market cap) worth of new shares without breaching the minimum public ownership requirement,” it added.

Unicapital Securities research analyst Jeri R. Alfonso said MREIT needs to add around 120,000 square meters (sqm) of gross leasable area (GLA) to its portfolio to reach its year-end target of 600,000 sqm from its current 482,000 sqm.

“The proceeds from the block sale shall be settled on Sept. 19, 2025. The company will submit the required reinvestment plan detailing the use of proceeds from the block sale transaction,” Megaworld said.

Maybank Securities, BDO Securities, First Metro Securities, and RCBC Securities acted as brokers for the transaction.

Megaworld and MREIT are looking at about three more waves of asset infusions amounting to 520,000 sqm of GLA over the next two years in order to reach MREIT’s target portfolio size of one million sqm by 2027.

Last month, MREIT Investor Relations Head Andy Dela Cruz said that because of the time frame, the next waves of acquisitions will be bigger and will already include mall assets.

“It’s two years until 2027 and we plan to do an additional 500,000 sqm more, because we’re currently at 480,000 sqm so to reach one million sqm, we’ll need to do 500,000 sqm. We will do maybe two or three waves of acquisitions by then, and that will already give you an idea of how big of an acquisition we will do,” he said.

MREIT is currently in the process of raising its authorized capital stock so it will have new common shares for more asset-for-stock swaps with Megaworld in coming years.

“The capital hike is definitely to open up MREIT’s capacity to do again… a property for share swap,” Dela Cruz said, explaining that a swap is still the preferred mode for asset acquisition given the tax incentives.

The capital hike will set the stage for wave four of asset infusions into MREIT.

“We’re already deep into the review and due diligence for the next set of properties, and we expect to make a formal announcement soon for this... and the target to reach 600,000 sqm by year-end.

“As we’ve said, there is scope to exceed that. But we want to be very clear the process is still ongoing, and we’ll announce the details once we are through with due diligence and everything is finalized,” Dela Cruz said.

He noted that, “we are already starting to look at retail assets. The goal of reaching one million sqm will definitely already include retail spaces.”

MREIT is raising its authorized capital stock by 60 percent to ₱8 billion from ₱5 billion to support the company’s growth “by facilitating the infusion of additional assets under management (AUM).”

Last July, Megaworld unloaded ₱1.17 billion worth of MREIT shares last month also to make room for the next batch of asset-for-share swap with MREIT.

It sold 84.8 million common shares of MREIT, about 2.3 percent of MREIT’s outstanding capital, at an offer price of ₱13.82 per share under a block sale transaction last July 25, 2025.