Airline, petrochem units fuel JG’s 31% profit growth

GOKONGWEI-LED JG Summit Holdings Inc. booked a 30.6-percent year-on-year growth in first-semester profit to P17.53 billion as lower fuel cost boosted its airline business while its petrochemical arm expanded significantly.

Taking out non-operating and non-recurring items, JG Summit’s core profit rose 13.5 percent year-on-year to P15.99 billion in the first six months.

Consolidated revenue grew by 4.9 percent year-on-year to P119.38 billion in the first half.

Food and beverage arm Universal Robina Corp.’s net income attributable to equity holders of parent rose by 15.5 percent year-on-year to P7.29 billion in the first semester. Total revenue was flat as the increase in net sales of sugar, feeds and renewable energy were negated by the decline in the sales of international branded consumer foods group.

Property arm Robinsons Land Corp. posted an attributable net income of P3.22 billion, 8.9 percent higher year-on-year. Real estate revenue was up by 12.4 percent to P10.03 billion while hotel revenue was down by 0.5 percent to P862.51 million. The shopping mall business contributed 45.6 percent or P4.97 billion of revenue, growing by 9.1 percent.

Cebu Pacific’s net income for the first six months rose by 47.7 percent to P7.68 billion. Total revenue went up by 12.2 percent year-on-year to P33.09 billion due to an 8.7-percent increase in passenger volume and 10.4-percent rise in average ancillary revenue per passenger.

An expanded fleet allowed it to fly more passengers.

JG Summit Petrochemicals saw its six-month net income rising by 396.4 percent to P2.43 billion due to higher domestic sales of polymers and higher export of olefins. Revenue rose by 6.8 percent year-on-year to P12.97 billion.

Robinsons Bank’s net earnings surged by 107.2 percent to P134.12 million on higher interest income, commission income and trading gain.

Equity in net earnings of associate companies and joint ventures declined by 3.3 percent year-on-year to P4.03 billion. This was because dividend income received by the group fell by 32.3 percent year-on-year to P1.09 billion due to lower dividends from PLDT Inc. Its share in earnings of Singaporean property developer UIC and Meralco fell to P4.03 billion from P4.17 billion.

JG summit also posted a market valuation gain of P1.3 billion in the first semester, up from P29.08 million a year ago. This was due to the mark-to-market valuation gains on fuel hedging deals of the airline business.

The group also recognized a net foreign exchange gain of almost P1 billion in the first half , a turnaround from the loss last year of P836.56 million, due to the appreciation of the peso and other regional currencies against the dollar.