the Outsider - PSE Points to Ponder

  SM Prime is the empire of scale; Robinsons Land is the portfolio of balance. Their first-quarter numbers say as much about Philippine property as they do about the companies themselves. In Philippine real estate, size has a geography. It looks like the Mall of Asia complex, the thick lattice of SM malls across provincial capitals, and a balance sheet large enough to resemble a small financial system. By that measure, SM Prime Holdings remains the country’s great property leviathan. In the first quarter of 2026, it produced ₱33.3bn in revenue and ₱11.9bn in net income , on assets of ₱1.11trn . Robinsons Land Corporation , by contrast, is less a leviathan than an archipelago: smaller, more varied, and in this quarter, livelier. It posted ₱12.3bn in revenue , ₱4.4bn in net income , and ₱286.4bn in assets. The difference is not merely one of magnitude. It is one of character. SM Prime is still, above all, a mall company with residential and integrated-development appendages. Its m...

  In Philippine property, size is both a shield and a burden. Megaworld Corporation, one of the central pillars of Andrew Tan’s Alliance Global empire, entered 2026 with a vast portfolio of condominiums, offices, malls, and hotels spread across Metro Manila and provincial growth corridors. Its first-quarter results suggest that the empire remains sturdy. But they also reveal the trade-off facing large developers in a slower, costlier market: margins can be polished, but growth is harder to manufacture. For the three months ended March 31, 2026, Megaworld reported ₱21.60bn in consolidated revenues , up 3.21% from ₱20.93bn a year earlier. Net profit rose faster, climbing 6.08% to ₱6.18bn , while net income attributable to parent shareholders increased 3.88% to ₱5.29bn . Earnings per share improved to ₱0.163 , from ₱0.156 . On the surface, this is the kind of quarter investors usually tolerate gladly: modest sales growth, better profit growth, and no obvious balance-sheet scare....

  ABS-CBN and DITO once stood on opposite sides of the Philippine corporate fate. Now, both are being kept aloft by creditors, suppliers, and hope. There is a certain symmetry in corporate misfortune. In 2020, ABS-CBN, the Lopez family’s media empire, lost the congressional franchise that had long underpinned its free-to-air broadcasting business after a House committee voted 70-11 to deny its bid for renewal. Around the same era, DITO Telecommunity, backed by Dennis Uy’s Udenna group and China Telecom, was being cast as the disruptive third telco that would break the Globe-PLDT duopoly and bring competition to the Philippine connectivity market.  Six years later, the tables have not so much turned as collapsed inward. ABS-CBN is no longer the mighty broadcaster whose franchise became a national political drama. DITO is no longer merely the insurgent challenger promising cheaper data and faster speeds. Both have become variations of the same Philippine corporate specimen:...

In a softer property market, Robinsons Land’s recurring-income model looked sturdier than Ayala Land’s larger but more development-heavy franchise. In Philippine property, size has long conferred prestige. Ayala Land, Inc. (ALI) is the country’s great estate builder: a trillion-peso balance sheet, a portfolio stitched together across residential towers, estates, malls, offices, hotels, logistics parks, and an increasingly sophisticated REIT ecosystem. Robinsons Land Corporation (RLC) is smaller, less sprawling, and less frequently cast as the sector’s bellwether. Yet in the first quarter of 2026, the less glamorous company had the better quarter. RLC’s revenues rose, profits rose, cash flow improved, leverage fell, and liquidity strengthened; ALI, though still the larger franchise, was pulled down by a softer property-development cycle and higher financing charges. The headline numbers tell the story briskly. RLC’s consolidated revenues increased 11% year-on-year to ₱12.28bn , while ...

  Residential sales are quickening, financing costs are easing, and the balance sheet is flush. But the price of growth is showing up in margins. Robinsons Land Corporation entered 2026 with the air of a property company that has learned to enjoy several kinds of weather. In the first quarter, consolidated revenues rose by 11% year on year to ₱12.28bn , helped by a sturdier mall business, resilient offices, brisker hotel trade, and, most strikingly, a jump in residential sales. Net income climbed 9% to ₱4.40bn . Yet the result was less exuberant when viewed through the eyes of common shareholders: net income attributable to the parent rose by just 2% to ₱3.54bn , and earnings per share inched up to ₱0.74 from ₱0.72 .  The headline, then, is not simply that Robinsons Land is growing. It is that the composition of its growth is changing. Its recurring-income machine remains formidable: rental income still accounted for 48% of revenues , increasing 5% to ₱5.87bn . But the livelie...

  MerryMart shareholders are being asked to choose before the lights are fully on. The SEC and PSE should not let that pass. In a well-functioning market, a tender offer should sharpen a shareholder’s choice. Sell, hold, or demand more. In MerryMart Consumer Corp.’s case, the choice has instead become oddly murky. DoubleDragon Corp. is offering to acquire MM shares at ₱0.48 apiece , half in cash and half in newly issued DoubleDragon shares valued at ₱9.30 each , after agreeing to buy a 35% block from Injap Investments Inc. and launching a mandatory tender offer for the remaining 65% of MM shares. The tender offer period runs from May 18 to June 16, 2026 , with settlement scheduled for June 24, 2026 .  Yet as shareholders weigh whether to tender, the most basic instruments of judgment appear to be missing. As of this writing, PSE EDGE’s financial reports page shows MerryMart’s latest annual figures as fiscal year ended December 31, 2024 , while its latest quarterly financia...