SMC income surges 31% to P23.2 B

MANILA, Philippines - San Miguel Corp. (SMC) said yesterday its net income rose by about a third in the first three quarters of the year behind a double-digit spike in revenues.

In a statement, SMC said its net income rose 31 percent to P23.2 billion in the first nine months of the year while revenues rose 10 percent to P599 billion.

The food-to-infrastructure conglomerate attributed the robust growth in revenues in the first nine months of the year to a 12-percent year-on-year expansion in its new businesses, coupled with a healthy five-percent growth in its core beer and food businesses.

“We were able to build on the gains we made in the first semester. While adverse oil and fuel prices had an impact on Petron, we were able to ride out much of the volatility. This goes to show that our current portfolio of businesses is largely resilient to external stresses that could otherwise greatly impact our financial result,” said SMC president and chief operating officer Ramon S. Ang.

SMC said operating income improved slightly by two percent to P46.7 billion on improvements in the new businesses as well as San Miguel Pure Foods and Ginebra San Miguel Inc, which helped offset a weaker third quarter for Petron which suffered volatility in crude oil prices.

For its traditional businesses, SMC said San Miguel Brewery Inc., Ginebra San Miguel Inc., and San Miguel Pure Foods Co. Inc. all posted a healthy uptick in consolidated revenues.

San Miguel Brewery grew its consolidated revenues five percent to P56.3 billion, Ginebra improved seven percent to P10.6 billion, while Purefoods’ revenues climbed four percent.

SMC said its new businesses also performed better year-on-year in the January to September period.

Its new returns include Petron, SMC Global Power, and infrastructure projects, namely the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX), the NAIA Expressway, Skyway Stage 3, the Star Tollway upgrade, and Boracay Airport project.