JG Summit 9-mo profit surges by 88%

Gokongwei-led conglomerate JG Summit Holdings Inc. boosted its nine-month net profit year-on-year by 88.4 percent to P15.85 billion on the back of food and beverage, airline, and property businesses. The nine-month results included P2.85 billion in equity earnings from Manila Electric Co., one-time gain on sale of online platform JobStreet amounting to P1.45 billion and lower foreign exchange loss. Taking out treasury-related and nonrecurring items, JG Summit’s core net income for the nine-month period amounted to P15.02 billion, up by 37 percent from the previous year, JG Summit said in a regulatory filing on Friday. Cash flow as measured by earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization increased by 35.4 percent year-on-year to P35.4 billion in the first nine months compared to the previous year. Equity earnings from associated companies and joint ventures increased by 298.7 percent year-on-year to P5.78 billion for the nine-month period mostly from the equity earnings booked from Meralco amounting to P3.88 billion. To recall, JG Summit completed its buyout of the San Miguel group’s 27-percent stake in Meralco in end-December. The outperformer among iJG Summit’s operating units was Cebu Pacific operator Cebu Air, which posted a 213.1 percent growth in nine-month net profit to P2.08 billion. For the nine-month period ending June, the following units performed as follows: Universal Robina Corp. grew its net profit year-on-year by 1.3 percent to P8.55 billion, buoyed by the double-digit growth in branded consumer food group locally alongside an increase in contribution of international operations; RLC grew net profit by 6.4 percent to P3.88 billion, bulk of which came from its shopping mall and residential development businesses. JG Summit Petrochemicals Corp. posted a lower net loss of P495.76 million compared to P804.38 million in the previous year. Meanwhile, Robinsons Bank posted P175.39 million in net profit for the January to September period, 59 percent lower year-on-year in line with the industry-wide decline in treasury earnings.