SM Investments nets P33B

SM’s Mall of Asia

The country’s largest conglomerate SM Investments Corp. grew its net profit last year by 6 percent to P32.9 billion on higher earnings from its property and banking businesses.

Excluding non-recurring items, core profit of the business house founded by tycoon Henry Sy grew by 9 percent on the back of a similar 9-percent expansion in consolidated revenues to P396.1 billion, SMIC disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

SM president Frederic DyBuncio said core businesses continued to deliver strong results in 2017, driven by overall growth in the economy alongside the group’s nationwide expansion plans.

“Our property and specialty retail businesses delivered particularly strong results. During the year SM made substantial investments in its banks and in new business opportunities, which we expect to contribute to higher earnings growth in future years,” DyBuncio said.

Property accounted for 40 percent of total earnings, with banks comprising 38 percent and retail accounting for 22 percent.

Operations under SM Retail Inc., – consisting of non-food outlets like the department stores, supermarkets and specialty stores – reported a net income of P10.4 billion last year, flat from the previous year’s P10.6 billion. Total revenues grew by 7 percent to P297.4 billion.

“The underlying performance of our retail operations remained good, led by strong growth in our higher margin specialty retailing and with the addition of the successful Miniso variety store chain during the year,” DyBuncio added.

Department store arm The SM Store opened two stores: SM CDO Downtown Premier and SM City Puerto Princesa. Total gross selling areas of all 59 department stores under the portfolio stood at 760,000 square meters.

The food group, which includes SM Supermarket, SM Hypermarket, Savemore and WalterMart, added 42 new stores, most of which are stand-alone Savemore stores.

At end-2017, SM Retail had a total of 2,032 outlets, comprising 59 The SM Stores, 1,299 specialty retail outlets, 52 SM Supermarkets, 47 SM Hypermarkets, and 181 Savemore, 46 WalterMart and 348 Alfamart stores. A total of 341 outlets were added in 2017 across the retail business portfolio.

For SM Prime Holdings Inc., it was earlier reported that recurring net income grew by 16 percent to P27.6 billion, driven by the increase in rental revenue from malls as well as the strong sales take-up of housing units.

Banking arm BDO Unibank Inc. (BDO) posted a net income of P28.1 billion last year, rising by 7 percent and meeting its full-year goal.

China Banking Corp., meanwhile, grew net income growth by 15 percent to P7.4 billion last year on the back of sustained growth in core and fee-based businesses. Net interest income was up 17 percent to P20 billion as its loan book expanded by 17 percent to P454 billion. Total deposits rose by 17 percent to P635 billion, boosted by the efforts of new branches.

Total assets of the SM conglomerate grew by P100 billion last year to P960.1 billion. Last year, SM invested in the country’s largest integrated supply chain operator, 2GO Group Inc., and dormitory developer Philippine Urban Living Solutions.