Bank, property units boost SMIC’s profit to P10.7b

May 08, 2019

Conglomerate SM Investments Corp. said Wednesday net income grew 26 percent in the first quarter to P10.7 billion from P8.5 billion in the same period last year on the strong performance of core banking, property and retail businesses.

SMIC said in a disclosure to the stock exchange first-quarter consolidated revenues rose 15 percent to P109 billion from P95 billion a year earlier.

“We continued to deliver double-digit growth to both our top and bottom line in the first quarter. The performance was strong across our businesses, particularly for our banks,” SMIC president Frederic DyBuncio said.

The conglomerate said banks in the first quarter accounted for 42 percent of the group’s consolidated net income, followed by property at 40 percent and retail at 18 percent.

Retail operations under SM Retail Inc. reported a 13-percent growth in revenues to P79 billion in the first quarter, while net income rose 5 percent to P2.7 billion.

Revenues from SM Retail’s specialty retail stores rose 13 percent to P19.6 billion.

SM Retail had 2,385 stores comprising of 63 The SM Stores, 1,388 specialty retail stores, 57 SM Supermarkets, 53 SM Hypermarkets, 194 Savemore, 52 WalterMart and 578 Alfamart stores as of end-March.

SMIC’s property unit SM Prime Holdings Inc. earlier reported a net income growth of 16 percent in the first quarter to P8.8 billion as consolidated revenues rose 14 percent to P26.5 billion.

Banking unit BDO Unibank also posted a net income of P9.8 billion in the first quarter, up 66 percent year-on-year on the continued expansion of its core banking operations, recovery of trading gains to normal levels and strong results from bank fees and life insurance premiums.

China Bank also reported that its consolidated net income in the first quarter reached P1.9 billion, up 24 percent from the same period last year.