GT Capital’s profit for first half of 2014 down

SCREENGRAB from www.gtcapital.com.ph

GT Capital Holdings Inc. of the Ty group posted a consolidated net income of P4 billion as of June this year, down 36 percent from the P6.1 billion recorded in the first six months of last year.

Last year’s earnings, however, included extraordinary gains worth P1.3 billion, GT Capital president Carmelo Maria L. Bautista noted in a briefing Friday.

GT Capital chief financial officer and senior vice president Francisco H. Suarez Jr. also pointed out that the company had already slashed the consolidated net income decline from a higher 56 percent at the end of the first quarter.

First-half core net income went down 17 percent year-on-year to P3.9 billion from P4.8 billion last year, during which component-firm Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company (Metrobank) boosted earnings from securities and foreign exchange trading gains, Bautista said.

“GT Capital’s component companies performed within our expectations during the first half of this year. We thus remain confident that the company will operate equally well for the rest of the year, with our dominant auto business and resilient property development projects as key growth drivers,” company chair Francisco C. Sebastian said in a statement.

Suarez added that despite the profit decline in the first half, GT Capital would still exceed by the end of the year last year’s consolidated net income worth P8.6 billion by “high single-digits to low double-digits.”

Bautista said that automotive arm Toyota Motor Philippines Corp.’s (TMP) strong sales would boost the bottom line.

Consolidated revenues during the first half jumped 35 percent to P66.2 billion from P49.1 billion last year, mainly on higher sales of TMP and property unit Federal Land Inc.

TMP’s first half revenues grew by 29 percent to P48.9 billion from P37.8 billion last year. At end-June, the car company likewise grew its net income by 30 percent to P2.98 billion from P2.3 billion last year.

Federal Land, meanwhile, increased its net income by 58 percent in the first half to P716.2 million from P453.3 million last year, on the back of revenues that rose 21 percent to P4.4 billion from P3.7 billion during the same period.

As for Global Business Power Corp., end-June net income slid to P920 million from P1.1 billion last year, even as its revenues went up to P9.3 billion, 5.4-percent higher than last year.

Metrobank earlier reported a first-semester net income of P9.1 billion, half the level chalked up in the same period last year.

GT Capital’s other component-companies are Philippine Axa Life Insurance Corp., Charter Ping An Insurance Corp., Toyota Manila Bay Corp. and Toyota Cubao Inc.