LTG income more than doubles in 9 months

MANILA, Philippines — Lucio Tan’s LT Group Inc. (LTG) reported an attributable net income of P20.41 billion from January to September, 105 percent higher than the previous year’s P9.95 billion.

The tobacco business accounted for P12 billion or 59 percent of total attributable income while banking arm Philippine National Bank (PNB) contributed P6.46 billion or 32 percent.

Tanduay Distillers Inc. added P855 million or four percent of total while Asia Brewery Inc. (ABI) accounted for P428 million or two percent.

Likewise, Eton Properties Philippines Inc. contributed P334 million or two percent.

In terms of business segments, publicly listed PNB’s net income under the pooling method reached P11.49 billion during the period, lower by 53 percent than last year’s P24.44 billion.

The tobacco business likewise reported a net income of P12.04 billion for the nine-month period, also 10 percent lower than the P13.32 billion reported a year ago.

Tanduay’s net profit for the first three quarters was also down to P860 million or 14 percent lower than the P1 billion a year ago.

On the other hand, Asia Brewery’s net income during the period reached P428 million, P17 million or four percent higher than the P411 million reported for the same period last year.

Eton’s net income reached P335 million, lower by nine percent from the P367 million reported a year ago.

In September, LTG declared a P0.30 per share special dividend, or P3.25 billion, which was paid on Sept. 15.  This brought the year-to-date total dividends to P0.90 per share or P9.74 billion, equivalent to 48.1 percent of LTG’s 2021 attributable net income.

LTG’s balance sheet remains strong.  Debt-to-equity ratio was at 3.68:1 with PNB and at 0.16:1 without PNB as of end-September.