PLDT sold Smart Tower for $128M —JLL

Real estate services firm JLL said Friday it concluded the sale of Smart Tower in Ayala Avenue, Makati City, on behalf of its client, PLDT Inc., for $128 million.

The property was purchased by Consunji-led DMC Urban Property Developers Inc.

“The sale price represents the largest commercial real estate transaction completed in the Philippines in 2020,” JLL said.

Under the terms of the transaction, PLDT will continue to occupy Smart Tower, which houses the corporate headquarters of its subsidiary, Smart, for the next five years via an accompanying leaseback agreement.

“Investor appetite for grade A assets in the Metro Manila area has remained high throughout an unpredictable year. The sale of the marquee Smart Tower reinforces the long-term confidence in the office market and the ambitions of corporate occupiers to reimagine their real estate holdings,” said Christophe Vicic, country head for Philippines of JLL.

Smart Tower is a 37-storey office development with a gross floor area of 38,000 square meters and 244 parking slots located along Ayala Avenue, the premier business address in the Philippines.

To negotiate the complex sale and leaseback arrangement, JLL said it provided a range of consultancy services to PLDT Inc. tailored to raise revenue, while securing occupancy at a competitive rate.

“An asset of this size and prestige is a rarity in the market. In a more telling sign of the evolving maturity of the Philippines real estate sector, we expect the sale and leaseback component of this transaction to prompt corporations to further re-evaluate asset light operating models,” said P.Ryan Isip, senior director and head of Capital Markets, Philippines, JLL.

JLL has been operating in the Philippines since 1997 as a 100% wholly owned entity and currently manages about 5.3 million square meters of real estate with a workforce of over 1,300 employees.—AOL, GMA News