Real estate giant Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) is beefing up its share buyback program with a fresh ₱10-billion budget after nearly depleting the ₱26 billion it allotted in 2020 for buying its own shares.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) on Tuesday, March 31, ALI said its executive committee approved during the same day a share buyback program of up to ₱10 billion starting April 1, 2026.

The program will be implemented through open market purchases executed via trading facilities of the PSE.

Last year, ALI said it had already bought back over ₱20 billion of its shares since 2020.

ALI President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Anna Ma. Margarita Bautista-Dy said the company continues to actively repurchase its shares because, “At these levels, we believe that ALI shares are trading well below its fair value. Hence, we have actively been repurchasing our shares.”

“And we will continue implementing our buyback program as long as we see our shares trading at a steep discount to its intrinsic value,” she said.

ALI shares have taken a beating lately, partly because of foreign selling as funds exit the Philippines, although sentiment on the firm’s stock has also suffered due to the challenging environment faced by the Metro Manila residential condominium market.

“With yesterday’s 7.3-percent drop, ALI is now the second-worst performing index stock since the war in Iran began. The stock is also at a 14+-year low in terms of price, trading at its cheapest on a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) basis since at least 2005 at 7.2 times,” said Abacus Securities Corp. vice president and head of research Nicky Franco.

There has also been heavy foreign selling of the stock since mid-February, which has totaled over ₱2 billion since Monday, March 30, with the momentum of such outflows appearing to have picked up recently.

Franco also said that the firm’s earnings will be affected by the reduction in mall operating hours because of the energy crisis, which may also lead to work-from-home (WFH) or flexible office arrangements in April.

He added that the construction industry’s high reliance on diesel to operate machines and transport bulky construction materials can slow down work already in progress, and contractors and suppliers may claim “force majeure” in not meeting scheduled commitments.

“Among the four property majors, ALI has the second-greatest exposure to revenues recognized based on the percentage of completion (POC) method,” Franco noted.