Ayala income up 45 % in Q1

MANILA, Philippines — Ayala Corp., the country’s oldest conglomerate, reported that its net income grew by 45 percent to P7.8 billion in the first quarter  on the back of increased mobility and Globe Telecom’s partial sale of its data center business.

Ayala president and CEO Fernando Zobel de Ayala said the conglomerate was able to pursue its investment amid an improving business environment.

“While the surge in infections at the start of the year delayed the expected full reopening of economic activity, the de-escalation of mobility restrictions in March are starting to be felt in our cyclical businesses in real estate and banking. This encouraging development enables us to continue pursuing our investment programs and deploying capital into various growth initiatives in the Ayala group,” Zobel said.

In terms of the business segments,  property arm Ayala Land Inc. generated a net income of P3.2 billion in the first quarter, up 14 percent year-on-year, supported by continuing cost-efficiency measures amid the pandemic.

Consolidated revenue reached P24.6 billion, similar to the same period last year, reflecting the slight contraction in property development, which outweighed the resurgence in commercial leasing during the period.

The banking arm, BPI posted a net income of P8 billion in the first quarter, expanding by 60 percent from a year ago on higher net interest income, lower loan loss provisions, and normalized tax expenses following the previous year’s one-time tax adjustments from the effectivity of the CREATE law.

Telco giant Globe increased its net income by 86 percent to P13.7 billion in the first quarter   mainly due to the P8.5 billion net gain from the partial sale of its data center business as well as higher EBITDA and lower non-operating expenses, all of which fully offset the increase in depreciation charges.

On the other hand, AC Energy’s net income declined by 68 percent to P405 million in the first quarter,   driven by higher costs of purchased power due to elevated spot market prices during a major preventive maintenance outage of the SLTEC thermal plant as well as curtailment to the company’s output in the Visayas because of transmission line damage from Typhoon Rai (Odette) and prior damage to a major sub-sea cable.

Without the impact of these events, the company’s net income would have reached approximately P1.6 billion in the period, for a growth of 23 percent year-on-year.

Manila Water’s net income likewise decreased  by29 percent to P925 million during the quarter due to higher cost and expenses.