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Profits of Filinvest Development Corp. (FDC) jumped last year on the
back of higher revenues from its subsidiaries in real estate, sugar
and banking businesses, the firm disclosed to regulators.
In its annual report, the Gotianum family-led
FDC said its net income rose by 61 percent to P3.3 billion year on
year as revenues from real estate sales, interest income from
financial services and sugar sales grew by 33.8 percent to P6.96
billion.
The company also registered a one-time gain of
P2.2 billion from its primary and secondary offerings to effect the
changes in its equity interests in Filinvest Land Inc. (FLI), FDC
Forex Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of FDC, and its 39-percent
equity in East West Banking Corp.
Real estate and club share sales, boosted by the
firm’s low-cost housing development segment, grew by 21 percent to
P4.0 billion. New projects launched by FLI in the regional areas and
additional residential condominium of Filinvest Alabang Inc. (FAI)
also boosted sales. Mall and rental revenues improved by P100
million to P1.2 billion from a year ago owing to the “escalation
of rental rates” in PBCOM Tower and improved tenant occupancy to
100 percent.
FDC’s financial and banking services net
revenue surged by 52 percent to P1.9 billion year on year mainly due
to interest income as EWBC’s loans, particularly auto and credit
card loans, increased. Despite the rise in interest income, cost of
financial and banking services was trimmed down by 11 percent on the
back of the deposit mix improvement in favor of the low-cost
deposits.
Its sugar business contributed P146.3 million to
total since the purchase of Pacific Sugar Holdings Corp. (PSHC) on
June 29 to September 30, the end of PSHC’s fiscal year. Operating
expenses amounted to P68 million.
At end-December, FDC’s total consolidated
assets reached P115 billion while stockholders’ equity stood at
P58 billion and total liabilities at P56 billion. The year-end
debt-to-equity ratio was 0.17:1, an improvement from previous
year’s 0.33:1.
Total assets expanded by P29 billion due to the
purchase of PSHC and its subsidiaries, while cash and cash
equivalents jumped by 72 percent to P15 billion year-on-year due to
additional loans of P4.6 billion availed by FDC and its real-estate
subsidiaries. This was also boosted by proceeds from rediscounting
of receivables that increased accounts payable by P2 billion, or 42
percent and by higher volume of deposits that pushed deposit
liabilities by P5 billion, or 22 percent higher.
FDC said the funds it generated and that of its
real-estate subsidiaries will finance ongoing and future
developments.
-- Likha C. Cuevas-Miel
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