Screengrab from www.jgsummit.com.ph
MANILA, Philippines—Gokongwei-led conglomerate JG Summit Holdings Inc. posted a first-quarter net profit of P4.88 billion, only slightly higher than the P4.86 billion racked up in the same period in 2013, due to extraordinary losses from supertyphoon Yolanda.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday, JG Summit said it recorded extraordinary losses of P215 million due to Yolanda, which devastated the shopping mall of property unit Robinsons Land Corp. in Tacloban.
Core profit, however, was up by 12.1 percent year-on-year to P5.33 billion, excluding the impact of treasury gains or losses, market valuations and other one-off items.
Consolidated revenues rose by 12.2 percent year-on-year to P43.23 billion due to the strong performance of its major subsidiaries. Dividend income generated from core investments in telecom giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., among others, went up by 4 percent year-on-year in the first quarter to P2.01 billion.
This was how key subsidiaries fared:
– Food unit Universal Robina Corp.’s attributable net income increased by P582 million to P2.86 billion in the first quarter on a double-digit growth in its branded consumer food business;
– Property unit Robinsons Land Corp.’s net profit in the quarter ending December 2013 declined by 13.2 percent to P1.03 billion due to substantial typhoon and fire losses;
– Aviation unit Cebu Air Inc. posted an 85.5-percent year-on-year decline in first quarter net profit to P164.16 million as it spent for the acquisition of new aircraft;
– JG Summit Petrochemicals’ first quarter net loss declined to P278.85 million from the net loss of P296.13 million year-on-year, due to the technical shutdown of production since October 2012, in turn necessary for the full implementation of polyethylene capacity expansion and polypropylene rehabilitation projects.
– Banking unit Robinsons Bank saw a 91-percent decline in first quarter net profit to P30.74 million due to trading loss, a reversal of last year’s trading gains.