SM group 2017 profit rises by 6%

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 nonrecurring 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 revenue to P396.1 billion, SMIC disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday.

SMIC 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.

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

SM Retail Inc.—consisting of nonfood outlets like the department stores, supermarkets and specialty stores—posted a net income of P10.4 billion last year, flat from the previous year’s P10.6 billion. Total revenue was up by 7 percent to P297.4 billion.

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 it stood at 760,000 square meters.

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

At end-2017, SM Retail had a total of 2,032 outlets, composed of 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.

SM Prime Holdings Inc. posted a recurring net income of P27.6 billion up by 16 percent year-on-year, driven by the increase in rental revenue from malls and strong sales take-up of housing units.

BDO Unibank Inc. posted a net income of P28.1 billion last year, up 7 percent.
China Banking Corp. grew its net income 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.