SMIC net profit up 13% in Q1

MANILA, Philippines—Tycoon Henry Sy-led SM Investments Corp. grew its first-quarter net profit by 13 percent to P6 billion from a year ago on the back of robust banking, retail, shopping mall and real estate businesses.

Among SM’s core businesses, banks (Banco de Oro and China Bank) contributed most to the profits in the first three months with a share of 32.3 percent, followed by the retail group, which contributed 26.7 percent.

Shopping malls (SM Prime Holdings) and real estate (including SM Development Corp.) contributed 25.3 percent and 15.7 percent, respectively.

SM’s consolidated revenues increased by 16 percent to P49.7 billion from a year ago.

“The encouraging performance of SM during the first quarter of 2012 is due mainly to the strong start of its core businesses, some of which posted better-than-expected results for the period. With the prevailing positive outlook on the domestic economy, together with the expected resilience of our subsidiaries, we remain optimistic that SM will attain its growth and expansion targets for the rest of the year,” SM president Harley Sy said.

SM Retail attained a first-quarter net income of P1.1 billion, up 20 percent compared to a year ago. Total sales for the group increased by 10 percent to P34.4 billion. Contributing to its performance was the group’s sustained expansion, particularly through SaveMore, which opened five new branches in the first quarter compared with three during the same period in 2011.

In all, SM Retail opened eight new stores in the first three months, bringing the total number of stores to 176. These consist of 42 department stores, 33 supermarkets, 69 SaveMore branches, and 32 hypermarkets.

Some of SM’s publicly listed units earlier reported their first quarter results as follows:  BDO’s net income grew by 15 percent to P2.8 billion; SM Prime’s grew by 15 percent to P2.43 billion; and SMDC’s grew by 33 percent to P1.21 billion.