JG Summit income surges on strong core businesses

JG Summit Holdings Inc., the holding firm of the Gokongwei family, said its net income surged 63 percent last year to P31.3 billion, from the previous P19.19 billion.

Its performance last year was mainly as a result of foreign exchange gains and the increase in the earnings of its affiliates, but its revenues were flat.

A chunk of its income came from the P3-billion share in United Industrial Corp. Ltd.’s gain arising from its acquisition of additional shares in Marina Centre Holdings and Marina Mandarin Hotel.

Core income, which strips out nonrecurring items, grew 13 percent to P25.3 billion in 2019, from P22.4 billion in the previous year.

“Coming from a very challenging 2018, we saw a strong recovery as we posted a significant earnings expansion in 2019 driven by our core businesses in food, air transport and banking.

Our plan is to sustain this growth in the coming years as we have clearly laid out our strategic priorities leveraging on the strength of our group ecosystem while at the same time drive focus in strengthening our organizational and people capabilities," said Lance Gokongwei, the company's president and CEO.

However, revenues grew a slim 3 percent to P301.8 billion from the previous year's P291.9 billion.

Food unit Universal Robina Corp.'s revenues rose 5 percent to P134.2 billion, from P127.8 billion, driven by its branded consumer food domestic sales, but the operations of its Thailand, Vietnam and Australia and New Zealand units yielded softer results.

Its property unit reported flat revenues of P30.2 billion, from P29.5 billion in the previous year, despite strong rental income and hotel revenues.

Income of Cebu Air Inc., the country's second-largest airline, more than doubled to P9.1 billion. Its total revenues went up by 14 percent to P84.8 billion from the previous P74.1 billion mainly due to the 11-percent growth in passenger volume and 2.6-percent increase in average fares.

Revenues of JG Petrochemicals Group, meanwhile, declined by 31 percent to P29.1 billion, mainly on weakened market conditions brought about by the protracted United States-china trade tensions and the overall slowdown in the global economy.

The company said banking revenue rose by 32 percent to P81 billion, from P6.1 billion in 2018 due to higher interest income from finance receivables, commission income and trading gains for the year.