Philippine Airlines [PAL 5.50 4.2%; 21% avgVol] [link] reported a Q1 net income attributable of P4.65 billion, up 329% y/y from its Q1/22 net income attributable of P1.08 billion, and up 232% q/q from its Q4/22 net income attributable of P1.4 billion. PAL said that passenger revenue increased 112% y/y on a 156% y/y increase in passenger volume. PAL said its passenger load factor increased from 54% to 81%. The company said that its operating expenses were up 59%, mostly due to the increase in fuel prices, but also as a result of simply operating more flights.
MB Quick Take: It’s “hot girl summer” for the airlines right now, as they’re getting the chance to compare this quarter’s bump in domestic and international travel against Q1/22’s suppressed travel data thanks to the Omicron scare and the associated movement restrictions. Like with y/y inflation figures, the “growth” is going to start to drop mathematically as the denominator begins to more and more resemble PAL’s “new normal” profitability. So far, Captain Stan has done a reasonable job of holding the stick steady while PAL tries to gain some altitude. We’ll see how things go if rates remain high for a while, and PAL’s operations continue to be hampered by a failure to source replacement parts and planes.
Premiere Horizon Alliance [PHA 0.26 1.9%; 48% avgVol] [link] disclosed that someone named Ernest Yeung acquired 24.35% of PHA by winning an auction of PHA’s delinquent shares. An additional 68 million delinquent PHA shares, representing 1.19% of the company, were also up for auction but failed to attract any bids and are still considered delinquent.
MB Quick Take: The disclosure did not provide any context for who Ernest Yeung is, only that he’s a “private investor”. The disclosure also did not mention the price of the winning bid. Mr. Yeung is now PHA’s single largest shareholder, which is a totally normal thing to become through an auction. Totally normal.
Repower Energy Development [REDC 5.00 pre-IPO] was approved by the PSE for a June 26 IPO. The renewable energy company will go forward with its listing process, with its pricing on May 30, and an offer period that will run from June 6 through June 16.
MB Quick Take: This one surprised me, not because REDC’s application is bad, but because the PSE website and the EDGE disclosure server were entirely silent about the approval. I saw a couple of articles surface on Friday saying that the IPO was PSE-approved, but none of them quoted any statement directly. REDC’s dates have been added to the MB Market Calendar now that the IPO is fully-approved!
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