FDC profit drops to 3.7B in 9 months

Filinvest Development Corporation (FDC), the holding firm of the Gotianun Group, posted a 12 percent to 3.77 billion in the first nine months of 2014 from

4.3 billion in the same period last year on account of lower earnings from its banking unit.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the firm said it registered

27.6 billion in revenues in the nine months of 2014, up 8.2 percent from 25.5 billion last year on the back of its property subsidiary’s continued strength.

While consolidated core earnings of major subsidiaries show a robust 25 percent growth, this was tempered by the industry wide decline in trading gains of its banking subsidiary.

“The Filinvest group has been in an aggressive investment mode with the unprecedented branch expansion of East West Bank, the build up of office building portfolio of FLI as well as the construction of Mindanao’s largest power plant,” said FDC president Josephine Gotianun Yap.

She added that “such expansion will provide the necessary infrastructure for future solid growth but is expected to impact the group earnings in the short term.”

Filinvest Land, Inc. (FLI) registered strong results in the three quarters ending September with a 19 percent net income growth to 2.9 billion as a result of its real estate development business as well as its office leasing operations.

Its banking subsidiary EastWest Bank showed strong growth in core banking revenue with net interest income and fees increasing by 20 percent and 29 percent, respectively, on the back of healthy growth in loans and deposits.

Growth in both property and banking was moderated by the industry-wide decline in EastWest trading revenues in 2014 compared to extraordinary trading gains in 2013.

Gotianun Yap said FDC has recently been aggressive in the water supply projects by expressing bids in public-private partnership program of the Philippine government.