Ayala Corp. net income rises to P31.8B in 2018

MANILA, Philippines–The 2018 net income of the country’s oldest business house Ayala Corp. grew by 5 percent to P31.8 billion on strong earnings contributed by its real estate, telecommunications, and power businesses.

This year, the conglomerate has earmarked P262 billion in combined capital expenditure. A bulk of this amount is allocated to property arm Ayala Land and Globe Telecom, which have set aside P130 billion and P63 billion in capital expenditure for the year, respectively.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday, Ayala said its 2018 earnings performance was a result of strong equity earnings contribution from its business units, which reached P39.4 billion or 10 percent higher year-on-year. This was led by the strong double-digit growth in equity earnings of Ayala Land, Globe Telecom, and AC Energy. However, borrowing costs increased as Ayala funded its investments with new debt, moderating its net profits during the period.

“The aggressive growth strategy that we embarked on over a decade ago has been unprecedented for the Ayala group. Over the past 10 years, we spent close to P200 billion in capital expenditure at the parent level alone to support the investment programs of our various business units, including our new growth platforms in power, industrial technologies, infrastructure, education, and healthcare. Our profitability has also improved steadily over the past 10 years, growing at a compounded annual rate of 15 percent,” Ayala president and chief operating officer Fernando Zobel de Ayala said.

AC Energy’s net earnings expanded 16 percent to P4.1 billion in 2018, largely driven by its domestic thermal and renewable assets as well as higher contribution from its Indonesia investments.

AC Industrials’ net income dropped 53 percent year-on-year to P578 million, attributed to the weaker performance of its automotive businesses and start-up losses from newly acquired businesses. This decline was partially offset by a one-time gain in its electronics manufacturing services arm. Electronics manufacturing arm IMI reported a net income of P2.4 billion, up 34 percent from a year ago, boosted by non-operating items such as net gains from the sale of a China entity and other one-off items.

It was earlier reported that the following units performed in 2018 as follows:

• Ayala Land’s net income expanded by 16 percent to P29.2 billion, primarily driven by the strong performance of its property development and commercial leasing businesses;
• Bank of the Philippine Islands reported a net income of P23.1 billion, up 3 percent from the previous year, boosted by the robust growth of its core banking business but tempered by higher provisions and operational spending;
• Globe’s net profits rose by 22 percent to P18.6 billion during the year, mostly driven by  mobile data services;
• Manila Water recorded a net income of P6.5 billion, 6 percent higher from the previous year, largely driven by the Manila Concession, boosted by the contribution of its newly acquired platforms in Thailand and Indonesia. /jpv

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