Filinvest 9-month net up 16.2%

Filinvest Development Corp. (FDC), the Gotianun family’s flagship conglomerate, saw net income in the nine months through September increase on the back of its core property, banking, power and sugar businesses.

FDC said on Friday that profit from January to September this year hit P8.98 billion, up 16.2 percent over the same period in 2018. Revenue also rose by 16.6 percent to P55.26 billion.

“We are pleased with the year-to-date performance of the group, with each of the reported business lines contributing positively to the bottom line,” FDC president and CEO L. Josephine Yap said.

FDC said the property business via Filinvest Land Inc. (FLI) remained a “solid source growth.”

It said property sales posted by FLI rose by 5 percent to P16.1 billion. Rental revenue from FLI and Filinvest Alabang Inc. grew by 28 percent to P5.3 billion.

FDC’s banking and financial services subsidiary, East West Banking Corp., contributed a net income of P4.4 billion, up 44 percent during the period.

“As the consumer-led loan portfolio continues to expand coupled with margin recovery and improvement, EastWest Bank is well on its way to reaching its most profitable year in 2019,” FDC chair Jonathan Gotianun said.

Power subsidiary FDC Utilities Inc. (FDCUI) contributed P2 billion in net income, or a gain of 9 percent.

FDCUI operates an aggregate 405-megawatt clean coal plant in Misamis Oriental, which is the largest operating baseload power plant in Mindanao.

FDC has also been making an aggressive push into infrastructure. Together with the Gokongwei family’s JG Summit Holdings, it won the 25-year concession to operate the Clark International Airport in Pampanga.

FDC and JG Summit are also members of the Naia (Ninoy Aquino International Airport) Consortium, which is proposing to develop and operate Manila’s Naia via a 15-year concession.—MIGUEL R. CAMUS