SMIC profit jumps 22% in Q1

MANILA, Philippines -SM Investments Corp. (SMIC), the investment holding vehicle of the country’s richest man Henry Sy Sr., will outpace its targeted profit growth this year on the back of a 22-percent jump in first quarter earnings, top company executives said.

“From the figure I saw from the first quarter, I feel that we can have the range of about 15-17 percent (income growth),” said SMIC chief finance officer Jose Sio.

In its 2013-2015 plan, SMIC targets its profits to grow 12-15 percent annually, supported by the company’s continuous expansion.

But in the first quarter this year, its net income climbed 22 percent to P7.4 billion as revenues rose 15 percent to P56.8 billion from P49.6 billion a year ago.

“The growth was driven by the surge in earnings of SM’s banking business, coupled with strong earnings growth from SM’s mall and property businesses,” the company said.

“With the continuing rise in remittances from overseas Filipinos, the expansion of the country’s outsourcing sector and the recent credit upgrade of the Philippines to investment grade, we are confident of achieving even better results in the second quarter and beyond,” said SMIC president Harley T. Sy.

Of the first-quarter profits, SMIC derived 59.7 percent from banking (BDO Unibank Inc.), 15.8 percent from malls (SM Prime Holdings Inc.), 14.1 percent from retail operations (SM Retail Inc.) and 10.4 percent from property (SM Development Corp. and SM Land).

The trend regarding income contribution will continue given the strong financial sector in the Philippines, Sio said.

BDO’s earnings surged 257 percent to P10 billion in the first quarter as net interest income climbed 14 percent to P9.6 billion on the back of a 16-percent growth in customer loans and a nine-percent uptick in total deposits.

The country’s largest bank in terms of assets expects its full-year income to reach P20.4 billion.

Mall developer and operator SM Prime recorded a 15-percent gain in consolidated net income to P2.8 billion in the first three months of the year. Its revenues grew 11 percent to P7.8 billion.

SM Prime said its five malls in China contributed P700 million in revenues, up nine percent from last year.

SM Prime has 46 malls in the Philippines with a total gross floor area of 5.6 million square meters (sqm). In China, it has five malls with a total gross floor area of 0.8 million sqm.

For its part, SM Retail reported an income of P1.2 billion, up four percent from last year as sales rose 5.8 percent to P36.4 billion.

As of end-March, SM Retail had 201 stores consisting of 46 SM Department stores, 37 SM Supermarkets, 37 SM Hypermarkets and 81 SaveMore stores, up from just 176 stores in the same period last year.

SM’s property group recorded a net income of P1.8 billion, up 19 percent from last year. SMDC accounted for 76 percent of earnings.

In the first quarter, SMDC’s consolidated net income rose 12 percent to P1.4 billion.

The developer will launch four new projects this year that will introduce 13,000 condominium units to the market.

In terms of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects, Sy said: “We are focused on the retail side of it that is why we are interested to be part of it.”