Filinvest Development Corp. (FDC), the investment holding firm of tycoon Andrew Gotianun, said its net earnings for the nine months ending September this year more than doubled to P3.91 billion from P1.76 billion in the same period last year, boosted by one-time gains from the sale of shares.

In a financial report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, FDC said net revenues rose 23.07 percent to P4.96 billion from P4.03 billion.

Real estate operations contributed P3.4 billion in net revenues, up eight percent from P4.03 billion as a result of higher sales of lots, condominium and housing units and club shares. Mall and rental revenues reached P862 million or an increase of 16 percent from P744.7 million due to the escalation of rental rates in PBCOM Tower and improved tenant occupancy.

Financial and banking services, on the other hand, pumped in P1.3 billion in revenues, 47 percent higher than the year-ago level of P900 million, primarily coming from interest income with the increase in loans, particularly auto and credit card loans.

FDC said its sugar units, meanwhile, contributed a total of P250.5 million.

The company acquired from its parent company, ALG Holdings Corp. (ALGHC), 100 percent of Pacific Sugar Holdings Corp. (PSHC) in exchange for 1.55 billion shares of common stock.

PSHC wholly owns and controls three subsidiaries: Davao Sugar Central Co. Inc., Cotabato Sugar Central Co. Inc. and High Yield Sugar Farms Corp. (HYSFC) which have a combined milling capacity of 9,000 tons per day.

As of Sept. 30, 2007, FDC had total assets of P114 billion as against liabilities of P56 billion.

FDC is engaged in the property development and banking businesses through subsidiaries Filinvest Land Inc., Filinvest Alabang Inc. and East West Banking Corp.

It has set aside about P14 billion in capital expenditures for this year and next, bulk of which will come from its planned follow-on offering of shares next year.

The company is planning to issue to the public up to 3.5 billion common shares of which 2.5 billion are primary shares, while the rest are existing shares which will be sold by ALG Holdings Corp.

Of the expected proceeds from the additional share issuance, P6 billion will go to Filinvest Alabang, Inc., P3 billion for the expansion of the group’s sugar farming business and P2 billion for the expansion of East West Banking Corp.

[ABS-CBN Interactive]