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BENPRES Holdings Corp. reported on Tuesday that its
net income dipped on the back of lower gains from its investments in
the first six months of the year.
In a disclosure to the Philippine
Stock Exchange, the Lopez family-led holding company said earnings
attributable to equity holders declined 6 percent to P1.778 billion
from last year, due to the 38 percent fall in equity net earnings of
investees to P1.475-billion.
Last year’s figure included
gains booked by affiliate First Philippine Holdings Corp. (FPHC)
from the maiden share offering of First Gen Corp.
Without these one-time gains,
Benpres’ net income attributable to equity holders of the parent
this year would have been 272 percent higher than last year’s P478
million.
The better results from recurring
businesses were due to the stable performance of FPHC and the
“steady recovery” of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp.
The parent company also gained
P633 million due to the stronger peso which allowed it to turnaround
from the P30 million expense recorded last year while provision for
losses was 5 percent lower.
FPHC posted a net income
attributable to equity holders of the parent at P2.6 billion but on
a recurring basis, net income was up by 86 percent due to the
strength of equity in net earnings of associates that more than
doubled to P1 billion.
This growth was driven by the
earnings of Manila Electric Co., which jumped more than 6 times to
P2.4 billion over a year ago.
ABS-CBN’s profits jumped 77
percent to P739 million, bolstered by the ongoing improvement in its
advertising business and the rising contribution of its
subscription-based business.
Benpres’ telecommunications
arm, Bayan Telecommunications, registered a 12 percent increase to
P2.6 billion in revenues mainly driven by increased data and voice
revenues. This brought BayanTel’s profits to P820 million, a
169-percent turnaround from last year’s P1.19 billion loss.
--Likha C. Cuevas-Miel
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