The country’s largest conglomerate, SM Investments Corp., grew its six-month net profit by 9 percent year-on-year to P16.6 billion led by higher earnings from its property and retail businesses.
Excluding onetime items booked in 2016, recurring income rose by 16 percent in the first semester, the Sy family-led conglomerate disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday.
Consolidated revenue went up by 7 percent year-on-year to P181.6 billion in the first half.
“Even without the benefits of an election year, we saw sustained growth across all our core businesses, driven by the strong economy and resilient consumer sentiment,” SM president Frederic DyBuncio said in a statement.
The property business contributed the most to the consolidated net income, accounting for 42 percent. This was followed by banks with 36 percent and retailing with 22 percent.
SM Retail, the only core business that is not separately listed on the stock exchange, reported a 6-percent year-on-year growth in its first-semester net profit to P5.2 billion on the back of a 6-percent increase in sales to P131.6 billion. This unit earned 4.4 centavos for every P1 worth of goods sold.
As of the end of June, SM Retail had 2,357 stores, composed of 58 department stores (The SM Stores), 1,709 specialty stores, 50 SM Supermarkets, 44 SM Hypermarkets, 170 Savemore stores, 41 Walter Mart stores and 285 Alfamart stores.
The food retail group pursued its aggressive expansion in both urban and rural communities nationwide, adding 15 midsize format Savemore stores, two SM Supermarkets and two Walter Mart stores. Meanwhile, convenience store chain Alfamart increased the number of its stores by 75 as of end-June from 210 at the start of the year.
The SM Store opened one store in SM CDO Downtown in Cagayan de Oro City in May 2017. As of the first half, the total gross selling area of all 58 department stores stood at 760,000 square meters.
In the meantime, revenue from SM Retail’s specialty retail stores grew by 8 percent year-on-year to P31.6 billion in the first six months. Specialty retail brands include Ace Hardware, SM Appliance Center, Homeworld, Our Home, Toy Kingdom, Watsons, Kultura, Baby Company, Sports Central, Forever 21 and Body Shop.