Edgeworth highlights worth to Filipino clients

Written by Anjo Alimario / Researcher

Sunday, 02 May 2010 16:37

Edgeworth Properties Inc. (EPI) president Vaughan Minor trusts the Philippine market, which he describes as having a “mature and professional” clientele. The Philippines is one of the first three countries in which Edgeworth established its Asian operations four years ago. Originally based in Cebu, EPI opened its Manila office early this week, which for the company was a milestone. Asked why EPI chose the Philippines, Minor’s immediate reply was “Why not?” “Our answer, simply, is that we believe in this country and its people who possess an uncommon concentration of wealth, talent and resources,” he said. Minor admitted that the company’s first two years in the country was tough as Filipino clients proved to be “both savvy and shrewd.” But looking at the great potential, Minor considers the country as a market that cannot be ignored. Proof to this is his strong assertion that the newly opened Manila office will soon rival its sister offices in Singapore and Malaysia in terms of market penetration and sales production. “We have experienced and survived what may have been the most violent, quickest recession that I have ever seen in all my 40 years in business. And we’ve survived,” Minor said. More than just survive, the company has grown and been transformed by the economic shock that hit the world. Founded in 2006, Edgeworth began as a relatively simple real-estate development group with its own construction company, offering undivided interests in land and sales of housing lots. “Our undivided interest [UDI] program offers our clients the opportunity to build their wealth with us as we unlock vast values from land,” Michael Yap, EPI vice president for Asia-Pacific, said. This is done when EPI purchases land in booming Western Canada and offers these land plots for sale as UDI units, which clients then purchase. They will receive title deeds to their purchase. “We encourage our clients to take part with us in this real-estate business,” Yap added. EPI then works through the planning and engineering processes to ready the project for development. The company will purchase these UDI units back from the clients at attractive rates of 60 percent to 100 percent, depending on each project’s particular terms and conditions. “Our UDI program offers strong returns backed up by land ownership, which reduces risk significantly,” Yap stressed. EPI’s projects are concentrated in Alberta, in the western part of Canada. Minor is proud to say that Alberta boosts a robust and growing economy with over C$358.9 billion in provincial gross domestic product. It has the second-largest oil reserves in the world and has strong and sustained housing demand. Upon testing the waters a few years ago, EPI’s scale of growth has undeniably given the company more than thrill of excitement. “Today, we have projects with a built-out value of between C$600 million and C$700 million, a reserve bank of nine valuable landholdings, and quite a few property-development projects including condominiums and commercial clusters,” Minor explained. “Our clients in both Canada and Asia number about 10,000, and we also deal with some of Canada’s most established financial advisories,” he said. The company has also added to its product portfolio mortgage-investment corporation options and project-specific investments. According to Minor, Edgeworth is thinking of making its entire range of products available to both the North American and Asian markets. In addition, Edgeworth is fully committed to meet the highest standards of regulations such that creating access to all their products requires much work in regulatory compliance and procedures. “We even have our own compliance officer in Canada to guide and advise us. Along with the 150-year-old law firm Davis Llp., our legal counsel and a panel of distinguished law firms in Asia, Edgeworth is working diligently to [make available] our asset-based investment products to our Asian offices,” he added. This year marks a year of completion and transformation. “We are preparing for the very first exit of our Asian investors at the end of this year,” Minor said, adding that buyers of its Half Moon Lake Estates UDI will enjoy an 80-percent return on their UDI purchases. This year, too, EPI will hand over three housing-lot program projects and one condominium project to its Canadian customers. This enables the company to engage in at least two more housing-lot projects and up to another two condominium projects in summer, said Minor. “We will be launching a global product that will give investors an opportunity to take part in an asset-based program that has varying risk-return platforms. This is quite innovative and we’ve already had some interest from financial-investment institutions wanting to study us and our products a little more,” he added. “The opening today of this beautiful Manila office is symbolic of Edgeworth as a whole. We’ve survived, we’re moving forward, and we believe that a bright future is ahead of us. And the Philippines and our team here contribute very much to our optimism of better things to come,” Minor said. For the Manila site, Yap shared that EPI’s client base reflects a spectrum of individuals commonly referred to as PMEBs, short for professionals, managers, executives and businessmen. “Our product and program appeal to the more savvy investor that has a more cosmopolitan outlook to life, wealth and investments. We appeal to persons who look to diversify their investment portfolio and are looking for more asset-based programs that are midterm in nature and with clearly spelt-out terms especially with regard to participation periods and returns,” Yap said. In Photo: C. Vaughan Minor, FCA, president, Edgeworth Properties; Flora N. Naces-Mateo, country manager, Edgeworth Properties; and Michael Yap, vice president, Edgeworth Properties, at the ceremonial toast during the launching of Edgeworth Properties in Ortigas Center. (Nonoy Lacza)