Ayala Corp. net income up by 35%

MANILA, Philippines–Conglomerate Ayala Corp. said net income in the nine months through September rose over a third, with gains led by its property development, telecommunications and water utility business.

The company said in a stock exchange filing Thursday that profit during the period hit P14.1 billion, up 35 percent. Consolidated revenues rose 17 percent to P134.5 billion.

“Core businesses, specifically Ayala Land Inc., Globe Telecom and Manila Water Co., produced solid results,” the conglomerate said.

It noted that the units “helped compensate lower earnings from the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), which had generated substantial gains from securities trading during the prior year.”

“Without the effect of accelerated depreciation from Globe Telecom’s network transformation initiative during the previous year, Ayala’s core net income grew percent,” it added.

In its filing, Ayala said the sale of goods and rendering of services comprised 85 percent of consolidated revenues, amounting to P114.5 billion and expanding by 15 percent year on year.

Robust performance across all business segments by Ayala Land, continued improvement in revenues from Manila Water due to higher billed volume, rising revenues from Integrated Microelectronics Inc. (IMI), and the P1.8 billion net divestment gain from Stream Global Services Inc. were all significant contributors to the expansion in consolidated revenues, it added.–Miguel R. Camus