SM Investments posts P6.7B Q1 profit, up 8.1%

SY-led conglomerate SM Investments Corp. booked P6.7 billion in net profit for the first quarter, 8.1 percent higher year-on-year, driven by growth in earnings across banking, property and retail businesses.

Excluding extraordinary items, recurring net income rose by 11 percent in the first quarter year-on-year on the back of a 7.7-percent increase in revenues to P65.1 billion for the period, SMIC reported to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

Banks accounted for 41 percent of net income while property had a share of 40 percent and retail contributed 19 percent. Consolidated net income margin stood at 10.4 percent.

“We are focused on expanding all our core businesses given the favorable economic outlook. Our expansion plans are geared towards meeting the needs of underserved customers across the country and to positioning ourselves to compete effectively in each of our growing markets,” SM president Harley Sy said in a press statement.

SM Retail Inc., the only business segment in the group that is not separately listed on the local bourse, reported a 6.5 percent year-on-year increase in net profit to P1.3 billion. This was fuelled by a similar 6.5 percent growth in total sales to P44.9 billion.

The group said SM’s food retail business continued to expand in both urban and rural communities, adding 10 new stores in various parts of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. At end- March, SM had a total of 279 stores broken down as follows: 50 The SM Stores (the new SM department store branding), 40 SM supermarkets, 43 SM hypermarkets, 120 Savemore stores and 26 WalterMart stores.

It was earlier reported that flagship banking unit BDO Unibank racked up P6.1 billion in net profit in the first quarter, up 12 percent year-on-year. This was mostly driven by the 9.3-percent growth in net interest income during the January to March period to P13.3 billion.

In the property segment, which was earlier consolidated to become the largest property firm in the country and one of the largest in Southeast Asia, SM Prime Holdings earlier reported a 176-percent growth in net profit to P12.6 billion.

As of end-March, SMIC’s total assets grew by 14 percent to P718.5 billion.