Filinvest Development FY23 profit: P12.1-B (up 46%)

Filinvest Development [FDC 5.67 unch; 1% avgVol] [link], the Gotianun Family’s mid-tier conglomerate, posted an FY23 consolidated net income of P12.1 billion, up 46% from its FY22 consolidated net income of P8.3 billion. Revenues were up 31% to P92.8 billion, driven by “double-digit improvement across all business segments”; banking was up 35% (EastWest Bank [EW 9.12 unch; 111% avgVol]), real estate up 20% (Filinvest Land [FLI 0.68 unch; 7% avgVol]), hospitality up 77%, power up 35%, and sugar up 16%. FDC said that the key to its success was a “renewed focus on the fundamentals of our business and staying true to our key strategic imperatives and reliance on our core strengths as an organization.” 

MB bottom-line: Right place, right time. I’m not saying that FDC would have achieved these results if it did nothing, but FDC’s numbers on the roulette wheel just so happened to be the ones that hit in this strange 2023 economy. The only thing that could have made it better is if the “Fast Forward Filinvest” crew had managed to push some capital into a digital gaming company. Banking was a cheat code this year. Mid-market real estate was strong. Power is in a long-term bull market. Hospitality is increasing at nearly a triple-digit pace across most conglos. From that perspective, I think FDC’s effort to pat itself on the back makes some sense if you construe it as basically saying, paraphrased: “We didn’t actively get in the way of our businesses and we were successful for that.” Shareholders be like: when is it our turn? FDC’s price is sitting 15% below its COVID-crash low, and is trading at levels that shareholders haven’t seen since PNoy was President. 

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