Cosco Capital nets P1.08 billion

RETAIL magnate Lucio Co-led Cosco Capital grew its net profit in the first three months by 12 percent year-on-year to a quarterly record high P1.08 billion on higher earnings across retailing and other businesses.

“Our company is well positioned to capture the growth from the strong consumer demand and we believe that we can achieve another record year of profits in 2016.” Cosco president Leonardo Dayao said in a press statement on Monday.

Cosco’s consolidated revenues in the first quarter amounted to P28.79 billion, up by 12 percent year-on-year.

In the first quarter, the retail business segment from Puregold and S&R contributed 86 percent of the total revenues followed by specialty retail business from Liquigaz while office warehouse had a share of 9 percent. The rest of the revenues came from liquor distribution and real estate leasing business units.

Puregold is the country’s second largest retailer while Liquigaz is the second largest liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) player in the country.

Net sales booked by Puregold were up by 20 percent year-on-year to P24.76 billion in the first quarter, attributed to the strong consumer demand from its 255 Puregold stores, 10 S&R membership stores and 16 S&R fast-food stores.

As of end 2015, Puregold group had a total of 298 stores which included the 17 stores from NE Bodega and Budgetlane acquired during the year.

Including share of earnings by minority interest, Cosco’s three-month net income amounted to P1.66 billion, up by 11 percent year-on-year.