SMC H1 hits P33.5B
San Miguel Corp. (SMC) said profit less unrealized foreign exchange effects grew 66 percent to P33.5 billion. Revenues rose 15 percent to P789 billion.
“This growth was driven by strong performance across most business segments, including Petron Corp., San Miguel Global Power, San Miguel Infrastructure, San Miguel Foods, and Ginebra San Miguel Inc.,” the group said.
Operating income jumped 22 percent to P85.1 billion, supported by improved margins in the power business and reduced raw material costs in the food business.
“Our strong first semester performance shows the resilience of our businesses even in a challenging market. We expect this positive momentum to continue throughout the year and deliver sustained value to all our stakeholders,” said Ramon Ang, SMC chairman.
JG Summit profit up 43%
JG Summit Holdings Inc. grew its profit for the first half of the year by 43 percent to P14.8 billion from P10.35 billion.
Revenues improved by 15 percent to P187.8 billion from P163.3 billion, as the group saw rising demand for tourism and recreation, along with increased petrochemical operations plus higher food and beverage sales volumes. The conglomerate said its core profit amounted to P18.1 billion, twice the amount recognized in the previous year, “boosted by the year on year margin improvement in core businesses, higher equity earnings from investment in Meralco (Manila Electric Co.), and the first quarter bank merger gain.”
“Excluding the P7.9 billion merger gain, recurring core profits grew 12 percent,” it said.
“We continue to post overall topline growth despite the lingering effects of inflation which dampened consumer sentiment. We have seen a divergence of results from our operating units with the strong demand for travel and leisure benefiting our air transport and real estate businesses. Our food and beverage unit continues to deliver higher sales volumes, but product mix has changed into lower price point categories, while increased plant utilization in our petrochemicals unit pulled up revenues in the first half. Coupled with our initiatives to drive productivity and better operating leverage, we have now seen improvements in margins,” said Lance Gokongwei, JG Summit chief executive officer (CEO).
First Gen recurring income falls
First Gen Corp. said lower contribution from unit Energy Development Corp. (EDC) pulled down its profit for the first half of the year by 10 percent to $150 million (P8.4 billion) from last year’s $167 million (P9.2 billion).
EDC produced lower recurring net income for the period, mainly from the decline of its revenues due to lower power prices and volumes sold, combined with an increase in operating expenses. However, the company said higher profits from the natural gas business was able to partially offset the decline from the geothermal business.
First Gen reported revenues of $1.28 billion (P72.1 billion), a 0.7 percent decrease from $1.29 billion (P71.1 billion) in 2023.
All platforms posted lower revenues except for the hydro platform, due to the additional sales volume from the 165 megawatts (MW) Casecnan hydroelectric power plant following the company’s takeover last February.
First Gen said the natural gas portfolio accounted for 67 percent of its total consolidated revenues, while 30 percent came from EDC’s geothermal, wind and solar plants, with the balance coming from the hydro business unit.
“Though First Gen started the year slow with the expiry of San Gabriel’s contract with Meralco, it is making some headway in recovery through WESM (Wholesale Electricity Spot Market) sales. The natural gas business unit also delivered higher net income via cost reduction,” said Francis Giles Puno, First Gen president and chief operating officer. – Jed Macapagal
MPIC H1 rises 17.37%
Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) closed the first half of the year with a profit of P12.3 billion, up 17.37 percent from last year’s P10.48 billion.
Revenues grew 21.75 percent to P35.76 billion from P29.37 billion. The company said core profit stood at P12.5 billion, up 27 percent from P9.9 billion last year.
June Cheryl Cabal-Revilla, MPIC chief finance officer, said the company has exceeded its pre-COVID pandemic results and expects to post “all time high” results in the succeeding years.
MPIC said the improved financial and operating results was mainly driven by strong growth in energy sales at Meralco, billed volumes at Maynilad Water, and traffic on the toll roads complemented by higher tariffs.
Among the company’s core businesses, power contributed the largest share at P10.1 billion or 68 percent of net operating income (NOI), while toll roads and water contributed P3.2 billion and P2.5 bilion, respectively, representing 38 percent of NOI.
Vitarich H1 profit improves
Vitarich Corp. said profit for the first half of the year reached P167 million over revenues of P6.13 billion, for a net profit margin of 2.72 percent. Rocco Sarmiento, Vitarich CEO, said the company is now focused on gaining scale and pursuing opportunities to drive profitable growth.
“Our first-half performance reflects this and shows that we are on the right track with our long-term strategy. In the second half, we expect the expanded distribution of Cook’s to boost the brand’s presence and enable retail demand. We will also launch innovations for consumers to enjoy diverse and unique culinary experiences,” he said.
Vitarich said the first semester revenue was a 3.1 percent drop over last year due to a decline in the feeds segment as demand for hog and poultry feeds was lesser compared to the previous year.
Operating profit almost tripled to P238.0 million, with operating costs kept at 7.7 percent of revenues.
