Publicly listed Phoenix Petroleum Philippines posted a 33-percent decline in its net income to P206 million in the first half of 2012, from the P305 million it registered a year ago.
The sharp reduction in the prices of global, and consequently local, petroleum products during the April-May period had failed to offset the 21 percent increase in the company’s revenues to P17 billion in the first six months of the year from P14 billion a year ago.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange Thursday, Phoenix Petroleum said revenue growth was driven largely by the 19-percent increase in sales volume of refined petroleum products, and the higher revenues from fuels service and storage.
The volume growth was a result of the expansion of the company’s retail network and increase in sales from its retail and commercial accounts.
As of end June 2012, Phoenix Petroleum has a network of 255 retail stations, higher compared to the 190 stations it had at the end of the same period last year.
For this year, the oil company is embarking on its most aggressive retail network expansion program to open a total of 100 additional stations. Under this program, the company allocated P500 million to put up 40 gas stations in Luzon this year; 20 in the Visayas; and 40 more in Mindanao, in a bid “to formalize our claim to be the leading independent player in the oil industry.”