SM Investments’ H1 profit jumps 27% to P23B

SM Investments Corp. saw a 27-percent year-on-year increase in first semester net profit to P23 billion, led by higher earnings from its banking and property businesses.

“We delivered a strong first half … Our retail business continues to do well and we are pleased with the rapid expansion of our minimart footprint through Alfamart,” SMIC president and CEO Frederic DyBuncio said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

The property and banking businesses accounted for 41 percent and 40 percent of SMIC’s net income while retail contributed 19 percent.

Group-wide revenue rose 14 percent year-on-year to P233.7 billion in the first semester.

SM Retail posted P5.7 billion in net profit for the first six months, flat from the same period last year. While revenue grew by 13 percent year-on-year to P169.8 billion, SM Retail had to make adjustments based on the Philippine Financial Reporting Standards 16, under which a right-of-use asset is recognized and amortized over the lease term while interest expense is incurred on the lease liability.

Excluding the adjustments, net retail income grew by 10 percent year-on-year to P6.3 billion.

At end-June 2019, SM Retail had a total of 2,600 stores.

In the same period, the total gross selling area of all department stores stood at 795,864 square meters.

Revenue from SM Retail’s specialty retail stores grew by 15 percent to P42.6 billion.

Property arm SM Prime Holdings grew net profit in the first semester by 16 percent year-on-year to P19.3 billion.

Banking arm BDO Unibank grew its net profit in the first semester by 54 percent year-on-year to P20.2 billion.