SM Dev't Corp nets P480.4 M in 1999

Retail tycoon Henry Sy Sr., chairman and chief executive officer of SM Development Corp. (SMDC), announced yesterday that the company posted revenues of P488 million from investment activities in 1999, derived mostly from interest earnings and trading gains.

Sy said the company, against the backdrop of softening profitability among many publicly listed companies in 1999, achieved a net income of P480.4 million, a "modest" 3.6-percent increase from the P463.5 million earned in 1998.

Addressing stockholders of SMDC, the SM Group's property development arm, at their annual meeting at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Makati City, Sy said: "Your Company's financial prudence throughout the year further strengthened its foundation. It sustained its solid financial condition."

Sy reported that SMDC's total assets rose by 6.9 percent to P4,403 million from last year's P4,118 million as total debts were kept at bay at P128 million.

He said the company's cash level remained robust at P1,837 million after netting out the P313 million cash dividends paid during the year. Moreover, Sy said, the market value of SMDC's investments in marketable securities exceeded cost by a healthy margin of P1,212 million.

At the same time, Sy pointed out that business conditions in the last two-years called for a re-examination of priorities and strategies. He then bared that the construction of SMDC's residential project for the middle income market will only begin this year.

Sy told stockholders that he remained confident in this industry, "especially in our target market, given the evolving environment in the housing sector."

Sy said SMDC will view the coming year with guarded optimism. "We shall continue to exercise financial discretion in our quest to improve shareholders value and we shall, likewise, remain focused on our primary business and area of competence, real estate," Sy said.