RRHI nets P3.3B

Gokongwei-led retailer Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc. (RRHI) posted an 11.1 percent year-on-year growth in nine-month net income to P3.3 billion on higher sales from its expanding store network.

For the third quarter alone, RRHI’s net profit rose by 15.3 percent year-on-year to P1.28 billion, the multi-format retailer said in a regulatory filing.

Core net earnings – net of interest earnings, equitized net earnings from the 40 percent stake in Robinsons Bank and unrealised foreign exchange gains or losses – grew by 23.7 percent year-on-year to P1.02 billion in the third quarter. Fore the nine-month period, core earnings were up by 17.1 percent year-on-year to P2.77 billion.

Consolidated net sales for the third quarter expanded by 16.2 percent to P25.48 billion, attributed to the robust same store sales growth, the sales contribution of the new stores as well as the sales from Savers Appliances (acquired in September last year) and The Generics Pharmacy (acquired this May).

Net sales for the nine-month period reached P73.81 billion, up by 16.6 percent year-on-year.

Blended same store sales growth was at 4.7 percent year-on-year in the third quarter. Growth has been particularly strong for supermarket at 4.3 percent, drugstore at 7.4 percent, do-it-yourself hardware store at 5.1 percent, specialty stores at 11.8 percent and department store at 2 percent.

Robinsons Retail ended September with a total of 3,405 stores including 1,864 The Generics Pharmacy stores, for a retail selling space exceeding the one million square meter mark, increasing by 9.2 percent year-on-year.

Gross margin expanded by 20 basis points to 21.9 percent in the third quarter, attributed to increasing scale and supplier support.

The company spent a total of P4.29 billion in capital expenditures for the first nine months, including acquisition, accounting for 85.7 percent of the full year budget of P5 billion.