Core business growth powers SMIC profit

SM Investments Corp., the listed holding company of taipan Henry Sy Sr., saw earnings grow in the first quarter of 2016, led by its core property, retail and banking units.

SM Investments said in a statement Tuesday that net income from January to March this year was up 3.6 percent to P7 billion while total revenues grew 7 percent to P69.8 billion.

The property business—through its unit SM Prime Holdings Inc.—accounted for  the lion’s share of earnings, or 43 percent of the company’s consolidated net income. This was followed by BDO Unibank Inc. at 36 percent and the SM Retail Group at 21 percent.

“We are pleased with SM’s strong underlying growth in the first quarter as consumer spending continued to be vibrant and sentiment about the Philippine economy remains strong,” SM Investments president Harley Sy said in the statement.

“Our continuing efforts to improve efficiencies in all our businesses have also helped ensure solid earnings growth,” he added.

The company’s retail operations under SM Retail Inc., which consist of both food (SM Markets) and non-food (The SM Store), reported sustained growth in total sales of 8 percent to P48.8 billion in the first quarter, while net income rose 16 percent to P1.5 billion.

SM’s food retail business continued to expand, adding five new stores.

At end-March 2016, SM Retail had a total of 314 stores comprising 53 The SM Stores, 45 SM Supermarkets, 44 SM Hypermarkets, 140 Savemore and 32 WalterMart stores.

BDO Unibank, for its part, posted a net income of P5.5 billion as core lending, deposit-taking and fee-generating businesses delivered solid numbers.

Net interest income grew by 17 percent to P15.5 billion, supported by the 15 percent jump in customer loans to P1.3 trillion and a 14 percent growth in deposits to P1.7 trillion.

SM Prime reported a recurring net income growth of 12 percent in the first quarter to P5.8 billion. Consolidated revenues rose 10 percent to P18.2 billion.

Rental revenues from malls and commercial spaces, which accounted for 59 percent of the total, grew 14 percent to P10.8 billion.