Injap’s MerryMart, Double Dragon 9-mo earnings up

The property and retail companies led by business tycoon Edgar “Injap” Sia II saw earnings shoot up in the first nine months of the year as the group scaled up expansion efforts after the pandemic slump.

Supermarket operator MerryMart Consumer Corp. saw net income from January to September surge nearly 85 percent to P42.5 million as revenues climbed 62 percent to P4.55 billion.

DoubleDragon Corp., Sia’s property venture with fast food billionaire Tony Tan Caktiong, saw profits jump 120.6 percent to P2.22 billion while revenue reached P5.66 billion, up 23 percent, during the same period.

The companies ramped up business activity as pandemic restrictions were eased early this year, separate stock exchanges filings showed on Tuesday.

MerryMart grew sales from existing stores and the recent pharmacy chain acquisitions of Carlos SuperDrug and Cecile’s Pharmacy.

The company’s assets expanded by over 27 percent to P8.26 billion as of September this year.

“We continue to be firm and unwavering in our pursuit to usher the MerryMart Group to become one of the most dominant and highly relevant consumer company in the Philippines by 2030,” said Sia, who is chair and CEO of MerryMart.

The supermarket operator, which earlier announced plans to increase its network to 1,200 outlets by 2030, also recorded strong growth at its shopping app, prompting the company to accelerate its nationwide rollout.

“We are particularly pleased with the traction of our MM Wholesale App so much so that we have recently expanded its reach to include customers in Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, Zambales, Pampanga and Bataan in addition to NCR+ (Metro Manila, Bulacan, Rizal, Laguna and Cavite),” MerryMart chief financial officer Hannah Yulo-Luccini said in a statement.

Meanwhile, DoubleDragon said revenue growth during the nine-month period was driven by strong sales at the company’s Hotel101 projects in Davao and Mactan, Cebu.

The developer said assets during the nine-month period expanded by 3.5 percent to P146.7 billion.

It announced further expansion moves on Tuesday after industrial leasing subsidiary CentralHub signed a 50-year lease contract covering 44,101 square meters in Danao, Cebu. The project will generate P15.92 billion in rental income over the lease term, it noted.

“DoubleDragon since the past few years has been in the intense mode of putting in brick by brick its business fundamentals and simultaneously solidifying each and every underlying part of the business,” said Sia, who is also chair and CEO of DoubleDragon.

“DoubleDragon is also glad to be one of the very few Filipino companies that has its own homegrown brand and unique hybrid condotel concept that is exportable outside of the Philippines. We believe that Hotel101 has a high potential to transcend as a mainstream global brand,” he added.

DDMP REIT Inc., the real estate investment trust arm of DoubleDragon, ended the nine-month period with a net income of P1.54 billion, which was higher by 5.82 percent. Total rental income also added 7.4 percent to P1.67 billion.

On Tuesday, DDMP REIT declared a cash dividend of P486.2 million, which will be paid to shareholders on Jan. 9 next year.