SM group 9-mo net up by 8%

SM Investments Corp., the country’s largest conglomerate, grew its nine-month net profit by 8 percent year-on-year to P23.8 billion on higher earnings across its retailing, property and banking businesses.

Excluding one-off items, SMIC’s recurring net income rose by 13 percent year-on-year on the back of an 8-percent growth in consolidated revenue to P272.2 billion for the first nine months.

“Our solid third quarter results benefited from the vibrant growth in our property and retail businesses.

Property earnings were driven by nationwide mall expansion and the strong performance of residential developments. Retail also gained from footprint expansion and robust consumer sentiment, particularly in specialty retailing. We remain confident that our growth plans are on track,” SM president Frederic DyBuncio said in a statement.

For the first nine months, property accounted for 40 percent of consolidated earnings while banks and retail had shares of 38 percent and 22 percent, respectively.

The net income of retail operations under SM Retail Inc. grew by 10 percent year-on-year to P7.7 billion as total sales rose by 6 percent to P197.9 billion. Revenue from specialty retail rose by 9 percent year-on-year.

The department store unit “The SM Store” opened two stores in Cagayan de Oro and in Puerto Princesa during the nine-month period. Total gross selling areas of all 59 department stores stood at over 750,000 square meters.

The food retail group also continued its aggressive expansion, adding 21 midsized format Savemore stores, three SM Supermarkets and two WalterMart stores for a total of 26 new stores year-to-date.

Convenience store arm Alfamart increased its stores to 320 as of end-September from 210 at the start of the year. Specialty Retail added 68 new stores.

It was earlier reported that property arm SM Prime grew its net income by 15 percent year-on-year to P20 billion.

BDO Unibank, on the other hand, earned P20.4 billion, up by 5 percent, as the bank expanded its core lending, deposit-taking and fee-based businesses.