Petron's income up 16% in first half

MANILA, Philippines — Petron Corp. on Tuesday said it managed to sustain its “strong performance” after posting a 16 percent rise in its earnings during the first half of the year.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange, Petron reported a consolidated net income of P9.5 billion in the first six months of the year, up from P8.2 billion recorded in the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the company’s consolidated revenues grew 32 percent to P273.5 billion from January to June, higher than the P207 billion booked in the comparable period in 2017. This was driven by sustained sales volumes of its Philippine and Malaysian operations, as well as higher prices of crude oil and finished products, it said.

“We intend to fortify our leadership position as we ride on the continued economic growth of the Philippine and Malaysian markets,” Petron President and CEO Ramon Ang said.

“We continue to integrate our value chain, build up our supply and logistics capabilities, and roll-out more service stations than our competitors,” Ang added. “We are well-positioned to fuel the government’s infrastructure program.”

Petron—which has a market capitalization of P84.3 billion and a network of over 2,400 stations—is engaged in refining of crude oil, as well as marketing and distribution of refined petroleum products like gasoline, naphtha, LPG, diesel, jet fuel, kerosene and petrochemicals.

On Tuesday, shares in Petron were down 10 centavos or 1.11 percent to close at P8.90 each at the Philippine Stock Exchange.