SM Investments Corp. (SMIC) said its attributable net income rose 11 percent during the first half of the year, despite the weak performance of its property-development arm.
The company said its income rose P15 billion for the period ending June, from last year’s P13.49 billion.
Consolidated revenues rose 8.5 percent to P151.1 billion in the first half, from P139.2 billion in the same period last year.
“Our strong first-half performance reflects continued economic growth, boosted in part by election spending. We continue to focus on cost efficiencies and operating-margin improvements. With the merger of our retail businesses, we now cater to a much-wider range of consumer needs and we look forward to benefiting from increasing consumer spending,” SMIC President Harley Sy said in a statement.
During the period, the property business contributed the most to consolidated net income at 41 percent. This was followed by banks with 38 percent and retail with 21 percent.
SM Retail said it had a total sales increase of 9 percent to P105.1 billion, while net income rose 14 percent to P3.5 billion.
By end-June, SM Retail had a total of 328 stores, comprising 55 department stores, 47 supermarkets, 45 hypermarkets, 147 Savemore stores and 34 Waltermart stores.
By end-June, there were 146 Alfamart convenience stores, from 99 at the start of the year.
Early this year, SM announced the merger of SM Retail with Sy family-owned specialty-store assets numbering 1,400 outlets. The merger received final approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission last month.
SM Prime Holdings Inc. reported consolidated net income of P12.6 billion, a steep 32-percent drop from P18.65 billion last year.
BDO Unibank Inc. reported a 13-percent increase in net income to P13.2 billion, partly as a result of onetime gain from the consolidation of BDO Life.
China Banking Corp. reported net-income growth of 30 percent to P3.3 billion for the first half, driven by strong growth in its core and fee-based businesses.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes