THE country’s oldest conglomerate, Ayala Corporation, said that they will be lowering their capital expenditure (capex) for 2024 by double digits.

This is as a number of their business units have slightly reduced their respective spending programs.

This was revealed by their chief finance officer Alberto de Larrazabal, who said that  looking at a 10% reduction from its P264-billion capex in 2023, with the bulk set to finance maturing loans.

“Slightly lower than last year. What’s happening is Globe is significantly lower na, [because] they’ve spent a lot already. In the case of ALI [Ayala Land Inc.], it’s still elevated but… slightly lower than last year,” he said.

Reports said that their Globe Telecom Inc. will be spending some $1 billion this year and another $1 billion in 2025.

This was after a $1.3-billion capex was earmarked in 2023. 

The purchase order (PO) issuances for the past year stood at $600 million or 36% of the average annual issuances in the past five years, enabling the firm to reduce its capex.

Meanwhile, ALI will be spending P13 billion for the redevelopment of four flagship malls: Greenbelt 2, Glorietta, TriNoMa, and Ayala Center Cebu.

“‘Yung tataas ng konti [What will increase slightly] is ACEN, the renewables, but generally we’ll be slightly lower in terms of aggregate [capex] compared to last year,” de Larrazabal added.