Victorias Milling profit dives 69.6%

Victorias Milling Co. Inc. (VMC) reported a 69.63-percent drop in its net income last year to P9.07 million from P29.87 million a year earlier, largely due to lower income from operations and higher express.

Revenues, however went up to P861.11 million from P827.76 million while gross profit slightly increased to P194.06 million from P192.29 million, the sugar milling firm said in its financial statement submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

VMC is spending P300 million this year to improve its raw sugar milling operations in order to service its debt amortization. The expansion project is aimed at increasing raw house capacity to 15,000 tons of canes per day from its current capacity of only 13,000 tons.

The move is expected to match the capacity of the raw sugar house with the company’s milling facility.

The capital outlay shall be sourced from the cash infusion of P300 million from Tanduay Holdings Inc., which formed part of VMC’s rehabilitation plan.

VMC has started paying the interest on its bank loans to 26 commercial banks in accordance with the terms and conditions of the debt restructuring agreement under the rehabilitation plan approved by the SEC.

The payment of interest marked the first time the creditor banks received any payments from VMC since 1997, when the company sought debt relief from the SEC.

VMC has slowly recovered from its dismal operations following its near financial collapse in 1997 as its acquired debt of P2 billion ballooned to P8 billion.