SMIC net income up 13% to P6B in Q1

MANILA, Philippines - SM Investments Corp. (SMIC), the listed flagship of the country’s wealthiest man Henry Sy, said its first quarter net earnings rose 13 percent to P6 billion, mainly driven by a 16-percent rise in revenues to P49.7 billion, owing to the robust performance across all core businesses.

“With the prevailing positive outlook on the domestic economy, together with the expected resilience of our subsidiaries, we remain optimistic that SM will attain its growth and expansion targets for the rest of the year,” said SMIC president Harley T. Sy.

“Our vision for the company remains focused on the long-term prospects in our five core businesses as they could further benefit from expectations of a stronger Philippine economy. Better governance in the public sector and the continued productivity of the Filipino people both in and outside of the country offers much room for steady growth in the consumer sector,” Sy added.

The banking business accounted for the bulk of this quarter’s income, contributing 32.3 percent to the total. This was followed by the retail group with a 26.7-percent share, shopping malls (25.3 percent) and real estate (15.7 percent).

BDO Unibank earned P2.8 billion, 15 percent higher than the P2.4 billion recorded in 2011 as gross customer loans continued to expand by 23 percent year-on-year.

SM Retail reported a 20-percent growth in net income to P1.1 billion as sales climbed by 10 percent to P34.4 billion on sustained expansion, particularly through SaveMore, which opened five new branches during the period under review.

The retail group opened to the public eight new stores, raising its total network to 176 as of end-March this year. This is broken down as follows 42 department stores, 33 supermarkets, 69 SaveMore branches, and 32 hypermarkets.

SMIC chief financial officer Jose T. Sio said the conglomerate hopes to sustain its upward momentum with net earnings seen to grow by 12 to 14 percent.

The company declared a cash dividend amounting to P10.40 each share to shareholders of record as of May 26. The dividends are payable on or before June 21.

The SM Group is aiming to list its China mall operations/assets either in Hong Kong or Singapore by 2015 to raise around $500 million.

SM Prime executive vice-president Jeffrey Lim said the group is now laying the groundwork for the listing of its China operations with the opening of at least one shopping center a year.

The SM Group, through SM Land (China) Ltd. currently owns malls in China, located in the cities of Xiamen, Jinjiang, Chengdu and Suzhou. A fifth mall, located in Chongqing, will open to the public end-this year.

Slated to open in 2013 are SM Tianjin and SM Zibo in central Shangdong province.

Lim didn’t say which entity the group would use to list, saying everything is still under wraps and could still change.

The four China malls have been gaining momentum, with net income growing 44 percent to P140 million on the back of a 34.8- percent jump in gross revenues to P620 million thanks to an increase in average occupancy rate, lease renewals and the opening of a lifestyle mall in Shanghai.

At present, the four malls have an average occupancy rate of 96 percent.