Belt-tightening worked, FDC posted 22% net profit in Q3

Gotianun group-led Filinvest Development Corp. (FDC) reported a 22-percent year-on-year increase in third quarter attributable net profit to P2 billion as belt-tightening measures made up for the decline in revenues and other income.

This brought FDC’s nine-month attributable net profit to P6.2 billion, down by 29.5 percent year-on-year, due to slower earnings from property, banking and power businesses and one-time gains that bloated last year’s comparable income.

The group generated revenues and other income amounting to P48 billion for the nine- month period, lower by 17.2 percent from a year ago. FDC had come from a high revenue base in 2020, which included a one-time gain of P2.9 billion from the sale of 40 percent of Spectrum Alabang Properties Inc.—a company formed for the development of a prime property—to Mitsubishi Corp.

Excluding this extraordinary gain, the decline in FDC’s net income for the nine-month period was just 4.6 percent.

Banking accounted for half of FDC’s bottomline in the nine-month period, delivering a net income contribution to the group of P5.1 billion, 13 percent lower year-on-year due to the slowdown in lending revenues and trading gains.

The property business, composed of the real estate and hospitality segments, contributed a combined P3.1 billion or 31 percent of total earnings. The power subsidiary contributed P1.4 billion or 15 percent, while the balance of 4 percent came from other businesses.

For the third quarter alone, revenues and other income declined at a slower pace of 4 percent to P16.1 billion, attributed to improvements in the property and power businesses.

“We are pleased with the recovery of most of our business units in the third quarter despite the enforcement of stricter quarantine measures in the National Capital Region and nearby provinces on August. We are positive that the improving trajectory will be sustained with the reopening of the economy. The increased mobility that we are starting to see is quite encouraging,” Josephine Gotianun-Yap, president and chief executive of FDC, said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

EastWest (EW) Bank booked a net income of P5.1 billion in the first nine months, 14 percent lower year-on-year, mainly due to lower net interest income and trading gains. Return on equity stood at 11.7 percent.

“The pandemic had not been easy. While EW remained profitable through the pandemic, this is not the way we wish to do our business. We are looking forward to deploying more capital and recoup lost loan volumes,” said Antonio Moncupa, chief executive officer of EW.

—DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA INQ