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BENPRES Holdings Corp. on Friday announced that its
net income fell sharply in the first three months this year on lower
earnings of its subsidiaries.
The holding company of the Lopez
group said in a statement that its unaudited consolidated earnings
plunged 91.8 percent to P60 million from P731 million in the same
period last year.
The company blamed the fall on
the 52.5-percent drop in equity in net earnings of investees to P300
million from P632 million last year.
Units First Philippine Holdings
Corp. and ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. reported declines of 79 percent
and 14 percent in net income to P219 million and P243 million,
respectively.
First Philippine Infrastructure
Inc. also reported a lower profit of P317 million from P337 million
last year, as cost of services increased by 4 percent amid flat
revenues.
Bayan Telecommunications Inc.
suffered a net loss in the first three months of the year at P684
million, widening from P9 million in the same period last year. The
company ascribed the increase to foreign exchange losses as the peso
weakened against the dollar during the period.
Bayan’s revenues rose by 26
percent to P1.6 billion driven by a 22-percent increase in voice,
primarily its Bayan Wireless Landline product, and a 32-percent rise
in data revenues.
Benpres’ investment in Bayan
has been fully written off. As a result, the conglomerate no longer
equitizes income or losses from the telecom company.
Meanwhile, Rockwell Land and Sky
Cable posted higher earnings of P178 million and P54 million,
respectively.
--DARWIN G. AMOJELAR
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