Bank sale triples Robinsons Retail earnings to P7.8B

Supermarket and specialty retailer Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc. (RRHI) saw its earnings in the first nine months of the year triple to P7.81 billion on gains from the sale of its banking unit to the Ayala group.

Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) officially took over Robinsons Bank last January through a P32-billion transaction.

Without this one-time gain, RRHI’s core earnings in the January to September period rose by 7.6 percent to P4.1 billion, the Gokongwei-led company said in a stock exchange filing on Friday.

READ: Robinsons eyes 75 to 100 new retail stores

At the same time, net sales had a modest 3-percent growth to P142.4 billion on sustained contributions from the core food and drugstore segments of RRHI, whose portfolio includes Robinsons Supermarket, Marketplace, The Generics Pharmacy (TGP) and Southstar Drug.

“We expect to see an uplift in sales in the months ahead as consumers regain their confidence amid easing inflation,” RRHI president and CEO Robina Gokongwei-Pe said.

Gross profit during the period inched up by 4.3 percent to P34.3 billion.

Operating income, meanwhile, increased by 3.7 percent to P6.4 billion, with growth tempered by higher costs from the company’s two new distribution centers that are being used for store expansion.

As of end-September, RRHI had a total of 2,413 outlets composed of 1,101 drugstores, 758 food stores, 225 do-it-yourself stores, 279 specialty stores and 50 department stores. It also has 2,163 franchised TGP stores.

Earlier, Gokongwei-Pe told the Inquirer that they planned to open up to 100 new retail stores this year.