Higher earnings across business units boosted FDC income in Q1 to P2.77B, up 61%

Gotianun family-led Filinvest Development Corp. (FDC) boosted its attributable first quarter net profit by 61 percent year-on-year to P2.77 billion on higher earnings across its banking, property, power and sugar businesses.

Including earnings attributable to noncontrolling interest, FDC’s first quarter net profit amounted to P3.9 billion, up by 50 percent from the same period last year. Excluding one-off expenses in the first quarter of 2018, consolidated net income increased by 37 percent.

Group-wide revenues grew by 22 percent year-on-year to P21 billion, 43 percent of which was contributed by the property business while banking contributed 42 percent. The balance was contributed by its power segment (11 percent) and the sugar group (4 percent).

The property business, composed of the real estate and hospitality segments, accounted for more than half of FDC’s bottom line.

On the other hand, banking arm East West Bank grew its first quarter net profit by 36 percent year-on-year to P1.29 billion.

“The increase in income is largely due to the resumption of the teachers’ loan program offered by our rural bank subsidiary, improved trading income, and lower credit costs,” FDC chair Jonathan Gotianun said in a disclosure on Thursday.

Power subsidiary FDC Utilities Inc. (FDCUI) grew net profit in the first quarter by 166 percent year-on-year to P599 million. FDCUI revenues and other income surged by 26 percent to P2.4 billion.

FDCUI currently operates a 405-megawatt clean coal plant in Misamis Oriental, the largest operating baseload power plant in Mindanao.

FDC has also bet big on the high-growth Clark corridor. “We see a lot of potential in this area, as Central Luzon registered 7.2 percent GDP (gross domestic product) growth in 2018, higher than the national growth rate (6.2 percent),” said FDC president and chief executive officer Josephine Gotianun-Yap.