SMIC 6-mo. profit up 11%

Conglomerate SM Investments Corp. grew its net profit in the first six months by 11 percent year-on-year to P15 billion on double-digit earnings growth in its retailing, property and banking businesses.

Excluding non-recurring items, the group led by the family of tycoon Henry Sy increased six-month net profit by 8 percent from year-ago level, driven by an 8.5 percent growth in consolidated revenue to P139.2 billion.

“Our strong first half performance reflects continued economic growth, boosted in part by election spending. We continue to focus on cost efficiencies and operating margin improvements. With the merger of our retail businesses we now cater to a much wider range of consumer needs and we look forward to benefiting from increasing consumer spending,” SM president Harley Sy said in a statement.

During the period, the property business accounted for 41 percent of consolidated net income. Banks followed with 38 percent and retailing, 21 percent.

SM Retail—the only retail business that was not separately listed—reported a 9-percent growth in six-month sales to P105.1 billion, while net income rose by 14 percent to P3.5 billion. Net margin expanded to 3.4 percent from 3.2 percent a year ago.

As of end-June, SM Retail had a total of 328 stores, composed of 55 department stores under “The SM Stores” brand, 47 supermarkets, 45 hypermarkets, 147 Savemore stores and 34 WalterMart stores.

The food retail group pursued its aggressive expansion in both urban and rural communities nationwide, adding 12 mid-sized format Savemore stores, two SM Supermarkets, one SM Hypermarket and two WalterMart stores. Meanwhile, convenience store chain Alfamart expanded its footprint to 146 stores as of end-June from 99 at the start of the year.

Two department stores were opened this year—one in SM San Jose Del Monte in Bulacan in April and in SM Trece Martires in Cavite in May. As of the first half, the total gross selling area of all 55 department stores stood at 729,722 square meters.

Early this year, SM announced the merger of SM Retail with Sy family-owned specialty store assets with over 1,400 outlets. The merger is seen to create value and boost earnings given the strong competitive position of the specialty stores and their synergies with SM malls.