Ayala steps in with ₱457-million share purchase after ALI slide
Cezar P. Consing and Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala
Zobel-led Ayala Corp. purchased ₱457.45 million worth of shares in its real estate subsidiary, Ayala Land Inc. (ALI), tapping the open market after the steep valuation slide left the country’s premier property developer trading at deep discounts.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Ayala said the conglomerate acquired 35 million common shares of ALI at an average price of ₱13.07 per share. T
Following the disclosure, ALI shares rallied as much as 4.62 percent in local trading to ₱13.60.
The parent-level intervention comes roughly a week after First Metro Securities downgraded ALI to a hold rating from buy, slashing its target price by nearly half to ₱15.5.
Analysts at First Metro flagged a slowing domestic residential real estate market, a heavy wall of near-term debt maturities, and technical selling pressures ahead.
The brokerage also warned of a high probability that ALI could be removed from the MSCI Philippines Standard Index by August, an event that typically triggers forced liquidations by rules-based passive index funds.
However, the downgrade sparked sharp institutional pushback from competing researchers. COL Financial countered the bearish view, maintaining a buy rating on ALI with a fair value estimate of ₱33.70 per share—more than double its current market value.
While acknowledging that absolute debt levels across the property sector remain elevated relative to historic averages, COL Financial dismissed concerns regarding the developer's underlying solvency.
“We also view the near-term weakness from the risk of index removal as a price risk rather than value impairment,” said COL Senior Research Manager Richard Laneda.
A 50 percent discount to conservative net asset value is usually reserved for entities facing material insolvency risks, covenant breaches, or forced asset liquidations, Laneda said.
He noted that none of those distress metrics apply to ALI managing ₱1 trillion in total assets, ₱86.3 billion in distributable retained earnings, and an investment-grade credit profile supported by a 4.6 times interest coverage ratio.