JG Summit posts 12% profit hike

MANILA, Philippines - The Gokongwei family’s JG Summit Holdings Inc. reported higher earnings in the first quarter on the back of the strong performance of its snacks and beverage business.

In a regulatory filing, JG Summit said core net income, which excludes one-off gains and losses from foreign exchange, market valuations, derivative transactions and extraordinary items, rose 12.1 percent to P5.33 billion from P4.76 billion a year earlier.

Consolidated net income inched up to P4.88 billion from P4.86 billion a year due to P215 million in extraordinary losses from Super Typhoon Yolanda.

“Consolidated revenues grew 12.2 percent to P43.23 billion from P38.51 billion due to the strong performance of major subsidiaries,” JG Summit said.

The conglomerate also reported P2.01 billion in dividend income from its investment in dominant telecommunications firm Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., up from P1.94 billion last year.

For its operating units, snacks and beverage giant Universal Robina Corp. (URC) said its core earnings jumped 31.2 percent to P3.42 billion as consolidated sales of good and services improved 13.1 percent to P22.71 billion in the first quarter.

URC’s net income rose a quarter to P2.86 billion from P2.28 billion.

Property unit Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC), for its part, registered a 13.2-percent drop in attributable net income to P1.03 billion due to substantial typhoon and fire losses in two of its malls.

Budget carrier Cebu Air Inc. said its net income slumped 85.8 percent to P164.16 million from P1.16 billion due to the appreciation of the dollar versus the peso that hit long-term debt related to aircraft acquisitions.

But it revenues jumped 11.6 percent to P11.76 billion from P10.54 billion as passenger volume grew 7.1 percent to 3.8 million from 3.5 million a year ago.

JG Summit Petrochemicals Corp. incurred a net loss of P278.85 million in the first quarter, narrower than the P296.13 million net loss a year ago, while revenues sank to P26.3 million from P507.21 million due to a technical shutdown since October 2012.

It prepared for the completion and integration of its naphtha cracker plant that will start operations this year.

Robinsons Bank Corp. said its net income plunged 91 percent to P30.74 million from P341.7 million in the absence of huge trading gains it recorded a year ago.

Equity in net earnings of associates, primarily from Singapore-based property firm United Industrial Corp. Ltd., more than tripled to P1.6 billion from P494.85 million year-on-year, JG Summit said.

For this year, the investment holding firm allotted around P40 billion for its capital expenditures.

The hefty capital spending will ensure the continuous growth in profits and support the expansion of local and regional operations of JG Summit’s units ahead of the Southeast Asian economic integration in 2015.