Business units boost San Miguel core profit to P31.1B at end-Sept.

Conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) booked a 54-percent year-on-year growth in core net profit to P31.1 billion at the end of September, bolstered by higher earnings across its food, beverage, power generation and oil businesses.

Including extraordinary items, SMC’s reported net income surged by 125 percent year-on-year to P43 billion for the nine-month period.

Earlier this year, SMC sold its telecommunication assets to PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom, giving up an earlier bid to compete in this business.

In a press statement on Friday, SMC reported that operating income reached P73.2 billion, 24 percent higher  year-on-year as core beverage, food and packaging businesses all maintained growth momentum.

Group-wide sales eased by 1 percent year-on-year to P498.3 billion.

Beer unit San Miguel Brewery grew its net profit by 22 percent to P12.2 billion on the back of an 18-percent growth in net sales to P69.3 billion. Hard liquor unit Ginebra San Miguel also jacked up its net profit to P238 million from a meager P9 million a year ago.

Food unit San Miguel Pure Foods Co. Inc. grew its net profit by 29 percent to P3.75 billion while net sales rose by 5 percent to P80.58 billion.

SMC Global Power Holdings Corp. grew its net profit by 320 percent to P5.74 billion while Petron Corp. posted a 47 percent increase in net profit to P7.43 billion.

SMC also announced a plan to raise as much as P60 billion from an offering of new bonds under the shelf registration facility. It aims to initially offer P20 billion worth of bonds. —Doris Dumlao-Abadilla