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JGSH
Philippines Ltd., a wholly-owned offshore unit of JG
Summit Holdings Inc., has secured a $300-million
syndicated term-loan facility it will use to pay
maturing obligations.
Parent
JG Summit needs to pay $300 million of bonds maturing in
June. JGSH serves as a financial unit of the parent
company for offshore activities.
In an
interview by telephone, JG Summit senior vice president
for corporate planning Bach Johann M. Sebastian said the
new loan would mature of five years.
"We will
make the drawdown middle of June," he said, adding that
the facility, participated by a mix of 20 local and
foreign banks, was arranged by ING Groep N.V.
JG
Summit earlier reported a net income of P8.6 billion in
2007 from P6.5 billion a year earlier as food and
airline businesses delivered strong results. Revenues
also went up to P92.5 billion, up 7.4 percent from P86.1
billion in the same comparable period.
The
company, whose shares are traded at the Philippine Stock
Exchange (PSE), said its food unit Universal Robina
Corp. (URC) posted 7.2-percent improvement in revenues
to P37.7 billion mainly because of the impressive growth
in sales of beverage, snackfoods and animal feeds. URC
continues to be the biggest contributor to group’s
revenues accounting for 40.8 percent of the total.
In terms
of earnings, URC likewise registered a growth, from
P3.02 to P5.56 billion, due to recognition of a gain on
sale of its investment in sister firm Robinsons Land
Corp. (RLC) amounting to P2.86 billion.
Cebu
Pacific Air, meanwhile, recorded revenues of P15.02
billion, a 54.5-percent rise over the previous year’s
P9.72 billion.
"It has
successfully carried almost 5.5 million passengers in
2007, an increase of 58 percent from the previous year’s
3.5 million passengers. This makes Cebu Pacific the
single largest domestic carrier in the country today,"
JG Summit said. Among its units, Cebu Pacific recorded
the most significant in earnings from P196.79 million in
2006 to P3.61 billion in 2007. This was brought about by
a substantial increase in passenger load due to
expansion in both domestic and international routes.
“And
because Cebu Pacific boast of a young fleet, this has
helped them improve aircraft utilization and become more
cost efficient. It must be noted though that P1.9
billion of this net income was due to foreign exchange
gains arising out of the translation of the value of its
dollar denominated debt into Philippine pesos," the
company said.
Its
property unit RLC generated gross revenues of P8.28
billion in 2007, an increase of 24.8 percent from the
previous year’s P6.4 billion. Its high-rise division
continues to lead in growth because of the continuing
strong demand for condominiums and BPO office space.
For its
part, telco unit Digitel posted an increase of 8.9
percent in service revenues. Its mobile-phone business,
Sun Cellular saw a big jump in revenues as it reached a
wider subscriber base due to a rollout of its network
that began in 2006. This compensated for a decline in
fixed-line service revenues caused by a continuing shift
towards mobile telephony. |
