[Vantage Point] Villar Land justifies flawed valuation

It’s potentially the largest financial distortion in Philippine stock market history. Regulators, investors, and analysts must demand full transparency — now!

Villar Land (formerly Golden MV Holdings Incorporated), a rebranded property developer with cemetery-developer origins, has emerged from obscurity to claim the mantle of the Philippines’ most valuable publicly listed company, supposedly worth P1.5 trillion. At the heart of this valuation is a P1.33-trillion land revaluation that allegedly drove P1 trillion in 2024 net income — an increase of 68,000% from the prior year. (READ: How did Manny Villar reclaim the title of richest Filipino?)

But our investigation paints a radically different picture: one of inflated valuation, absent financial disclosures, cherry-picked comparables, and dangerous accounting games. Even more damning, the company’s last available financial report — filed in September 2024 — tells a story of tiny assets, negligible equity, and negative cash flow. Villar Land, in its current state, resembles not the Philippines’ largest business empire, but a paper tiger propped up by accounting illusion.

1. No disclosure, no details, no evidence

Despite public and media claims of P1 trillion in 2024 profits — a record in Philippine corporate history — we found no disclosure of this figure anywhere in:

There are no financial statements, no explanatory notes, no appraisal reports, and no breakdown of how this alleged windfall was calculated. The company’s last and only publicly available financial report dates back to September 30, 2024, and it paints a far grimmer picture.

The combined earnings of the country’s top 10 industrial conglomerates amounted to P273 billion for the 12 months ending March 2025. It is, therefore, highly improbable that Villar Land can have P1 trillion in earnings in 1 year, beating them all.

2. The math doesn’t add up: Comparing Villar Land to SM Investments

Let’s put this alleged P1.5-trillion valuation into perspective.

According to Villar Land’s own most recent filing (September 2024, as of writing):

• Total assets: P38.0 billion
• Total equity: P15.2 billion
• Free cash flow: Negative P1.5 billion over the last 12 months

Now, compare that to SM Investments Corporation (SMIC), the country’s second most valuable company and one of its most respected and diversified conglomerates:

• Market capitalization: P1.1 trillion (as of June 2025)
• Total assets: P1.7 trillion (March 2025)
• Total equity: P891 billion
• Free cash flow: Positive P98.5 billion, the highest in the Philippines

How can Villar Land — holding less than 2% of SM’s assets, less than 2% of its equity, and generating negative cash flow — be worth more than SM?

This is not a question of investor sentiment. It’s a question of reality versus fiction.

3. P1.5 trillion valuation backed by… P38 billion in assets?

Here is where the narrative collapses.

Villar Land is trying to claim its valuation is based on “future potential” and land revaluations, yet as of its most recent disclosure:

• It owns only P38 billion in total assets.
• That is 39x less than SM Investments.
• Its free cash flow is negative, meaning it is burning — not generating — capital.

For a P1.5-trillion valuation to be justified, one would expect:

• Trillions in assets
• Hundreds of billions in retained earnings, or
• At the very least, sustained positive free cash flow.

Villar Land offers none of these. Instead, its supposed worth rests entirely on internal accounting assumptions about the value of undeveloped land it recently acquired for a song.

4. From cemetery plots to paper fortunes: A corporate shell game

This is not Villar Land’s first identity. It has undergone multiple reincarnations:

• Golden Haven (cemetery developer)
• Golden Bria (mass housing)
• Golden MV Holdings, and now
• Villar Land, the supposed crown jewel of Villar City.

This kind of rebranding is a classic maneuver to shed old baggage and distract from legacy issues. More importantly, it enables a shell game where low-cost land assembled by the Villar family over decades is injected into the public company, reclassified as investment property, and revalued dramatically — without actual market validation.

In 2024, Villar Land bought 366 hectares of land — just 10% of Villar City — for P5.2 billion, equivalent to P1,420 per square meters (sqm). Yet it now claims that parts of this land are currently worth P345,000 per sqm, a staggering 24,000% markup — without evidence of actual transactions at those levels.

This is not real profit. This is mark-to-myth accounting.

5. Dangerous comparables and ‘Just Multiply’ math

To justify its sky-high valuations, Villar Land cites land prices in:

• Filinvest City: P396,000–P592,000 per sqm
• Cerca Alabang (Ayala): P420,000 per sqm

These are fully developed central business districts (CBDs) with infrastructure, tenant mix, and years of track record. Villar City is still largely a vision, and to date, we have found no public data indicating any actual sales at P345,000 per sqm in that area.

Even more concerning, Manny Villar himself dismissed in an InsiderPH report any rigorous valuation method by saying: “Just multiply 3,500 [hectares] times the value, you can get the price.”

That may be fine for cocktail napkins — but not for capital markets. This oversimplification ignores:

• Development costs
• Market absorption rates
• Zoning and infrastructure requirements
• Time value of money
• Lack of actual transaction benchmarks

This is not valuation. It is aspirational arithmetic.

6. Missing disclosures and suspended shares

Adding insult to injury, Villar Land has been suspended from trading since May 15, 2025, for failing to file required financial reports. Despite claiming record-smashing profits, the company has not:

• Filed audited full-year 2024 financials
• Explained how it booked P1.33 trillion in gains
• Shared any methodology or third-party appraisal results

This blatant non-compliance, paired with extravagant public claims, erodes any remaining credibility.

Conclusion: The P1-trillion emperor has no clothes

Villar Land claims to be the country’s most valuable company at P1.5 trillion. But the only evidence backing this claim is a single cheap land purchase, some vague references to price lists in other cities, and one billionaire’s off-the-cuff multiplication trick.

The company’s actual fundamentals show:

• A tiny asset base (P38.0 billion)
• Minimal equity (P15.2 billion)
• Negative free cash flow (P-1.5 billion)
• No full-year financials for 2024
• No confirmation of the alleged P1 trillion profit
• Suspension from trading for non-disclosure

In contrast, SM Investments — with P1.7 trillion in assets, P891 billion in equity, and P98.5 billion in positive free cash flow — is currently valued lower than Villar Land.

This isn’t just irrational — it’s potentially the largest financial distortion in Philippine stock market history.

We believe Villar Land’s valuation is wildly inflated and its disclosures materially misleading.

Regulators, investors, and analysts must demand full transparency — now! – Rappler.com