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THE holding company of the SM group announced on Monday that its
profit grew by double digits last year on the back of higher retail
sales and rentals from its shopping mall business.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock
Exchange, SM Investments Corp. (SMIC) said its net income grew by 14
percent to P12 billion year on year. Taking out non-recurring
income, the company said its earnings rose by 25 percent.
Consolidated revenues jumped by 38 percent to
P122.5 billion from the prior year as retail sales—which comprises
84 percent of total revenues —expanded by 43 percent.
The group’s operating income rose 28 percent
to P20.8 billion, while operating expenses increased by 23 percent
to P21.6 billion.
“The whole of 2007 proved to be satisfactory
for [SMIC], as the company attained its objectives for the year. All
of the company’s core businesses continued to grow and deliver
encouraging results, on the back of an improving domestic economy,
thus enabling [it] to benefit from the business synergies created by
its subsidiaries,” Jose T. Sio, SMIC Chief Financial Officer,
said.
Rental income mostly from shopping malls grew by
13 percent to P11.1 billion while revenues from cinema ticket sales
and amusement rose 13 percent to P2.5 billion. The SM group’s
shopping mall business contributes about 10 percent to total
revenues but contributes 30 percent to total net income. Its real
estate business contributes another three percent to the firm’s
total revenues while revenues from the group’s banks are not
consolidated.
Net income from retail merchandising went up 30
percent to P3.3 billion year on year. For the first time, last
year’s results from the retail group include the full-year
operations of SM Supermarkets and SM Hypermarkets that were acquired
by SMIC only in June 2006 so only seven months of operations of
these two were included in that year’s financial report.
Last year, the retail group also opened two new
department stores, two hypermarkets, a supermarket and a new
SaveMore branch.
Its mall business under SM Prime Holdings Inc.
posted a 10-percent growth in net income to P6 billion with gross
revenues reaching P15.3 billion, a 16 percent increase over that of
the previous year.
Banco De Oro Unibank, Inc. posted a consolidated
profit of P6.5 billion or 2 percent more than the previous year as
net interest income increased 11 percent to P21.4 billion while
other income went down by 4.5 percent to P16.9 billion.
China Bank’s consolidated net income climbed
by 4 percent to P3.7 billion while net interest income rose 6
percent to P6.5 billion and other income fell by 20 percent to P2.7
billion.
Revenues from the real estate group jumped 142
percent to P3.2 billion year on year driven by condominium sales of
SM Development Corp., which helped net income from real estate to
jump by 88 percent to P1.12 billion.
-- Likha C. Cuevas-Miel
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