Robinsons Retail posts stronger earnings

Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc., a member of the Gokongwei group, reported a 9.8 percent growth in attributable net income to 13.8 billion for the first nine months of 2018.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the firm said this was primarily due to the 10.2 percent lift in operating income, which reached 14.7 billion from 14.2 billion in the same period last year.

Likewise, EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) increased 11.2 percent year-onyear to 16.4 billion from 15.7 billion.

Core net earnings increased 12.7 percent year-on-year to 13.5 billion from 13.1 billion in the first nine months of 2017. This is net income excluding interest, equitized net earnings from the 40 percent stake in Robinsons Bank and unrealized foreign exchange gains/losses, and others.

Consolidated net sales grew by 13.2 percent to 131.4 billion in the third quarter and 13.1 percent to 191.8 billion in the first nine months of 2018, driven by robust same store sales growth (SSSG) across all formats and the sales contribution of new stores.

High consumption was sustained through the first nine months of 2018, coming from the rise in take-home pay among salaried workers with the TRAIN Law’s implementation at the beginning of the year.

Same store sales growth for the group was above target at 6.6 percent in the first nine months of 2018. The supermarket segment, which contributed 46.5 percent to consolidated net sales and 43.5 percent to EBITDA, led with a strong SSSG of 8.6 percent.

Likewise, SSSG was healthy across other segments during the same period, with SSSG for specialty stores at 7.8 percent, DIY at 6.1 percent, convenience stores at 4.5 percent, drugstores at 2.9 percent, and department stores at 2.4 percent.