JG Summit more than doubles net income

MANILA, Philippines - JG Summit Holdings Inc., the flagship company of tycoon John Gokongwei, more than doubled its net income in the first half of the year to P7.75 billion as its food, airlines, real estate and telecommunications businesses continued to deliver strong financial results.

In a financial report filed with securities regulators, JG Summit said core earnings surged 108.9 percent to P11.09 billion while EBITDA grew 42.9 percent to P18.7 billion.

Consolidated revenues amounted to P60.76 billion, up 14 percent from the year ago level of P52.95 billion on steady growth across its core business units.

Only its petrochemical business showed a decline in sales by 23.9 percent to P1.61 billion owing to lower sales volume.

Property arm Robinsons Land Corp. posted a net profit of P2.59 billion in the nine months ending June this year, 11 percent higher than the year before.  Total revenues rose seven percent to P8.32 billion, 51 percent of which or P4.3 billion came from the commercial centers division.

The residential division accounted for 28 percent or P2.33 billion of RLC’s total revenues. The office buildings and hotels contributed 10 percent each to total revenues, amounting to P846.8 million and P865.6 million, respectively.

Telco unit Digital Telecommunications Philippines Inc. posted net earnings of P145.4 million in the first semester of the year, a reversal of the P638-million loss incurred the same period in 2009 on strong growth of its wireless business.

Consolidated revenues went up 19.1 percent to P7.97 billion from P6.69 billion, mainly driven by the 30.6-percent growth in its mobile service under Sun Cellular owing to the continued success of the unlimited service portfolio and increase in subscriber count.

Airline unit Cebu Air reported a 55.6-percent jump in first half net profit to P3.09 billion on the back of a 30.9-percent growth in revenues. Increased number of passengers and additional flight frequencies boosted revenues from P11.39 billion to P14.91 billion.

Increase in average fares and the automatic recognition of revenue from no show passengers also pushed up net revenues.

Meanwhile, Robinsons Savings Bank (RSB) and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) posted combined net earnings of P111.95 million, up 21 percent from P92.66 million. Revenues expanded by 31.4 percent to P685.62 million with the inclusion of RBS in its books. RBS was acquired in the second quarter of the year.

Equity earnings from associated companies and joint ventures fell 6.4 percent from P1.66 billion to P1.56 billion due to lower income by UIC.

JG Summit’ s consolidated cost of sales and services went up by 6.1 percent mainly due to higher costs recorded by Cebu Air and Digitel.