Lopez Holdings grows profits on lower costs
Lopez Holdings Corporation reported a 27 percent growth in attributable net income to ₱5.21 billion for the first nine months of 2023 from the ₱4.12 billion earned in the same period last year.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), the firm said the unaudited consolidated results primarily reflect the strong showing of units under First Philippine Holdings Corporation (FPH), especially its power business.
Unaudited consolidated revenues decreased by one percent year-on-year (YOY) to ₱124.29 billion from ₱125.06 billion.
All revenue items were generated by FPH units, as follows: sale of electricity (flat); real estate (down three percent); contracts and services (flat) and sale of merchandise (down 4 percent).
Unaudited consolidated costs and expenses decreased by seven percent YOY to ₱95.51 billion from ₱102.25 billion.
It was primarily driven by decline in cost of sales of electricity of the Power Generation sector and lower replacement power costs and repairs and maintenance expenses of EDC.
Cost of sale of electricity (down 10 percent), real estate (lower by seven percent), contracts and services (less 10 percent), merchandise sold (down 2 percent), and general and administrative expenses (up 11 percent) reflect the operations of FPH and units.
Loss from investment accounted for at equity method of ₱1.46 billion (higher by 133 percent) reflects the bigger loss incurred by ABS-CBN Corporation.
All other income and expenses primarily reflect FPH accounts or those of its subsidiaries and affiliates, including finance costs (up 25 percent), finance income (up 124 percent), net foreign exchange gains (down 92 percent), dividend income (up 41 percent) and net other income (up six percent).
FPH posted a 31 percent increase in attributable net income to ₱12.66 billion from ₱9.64 billion in the first nine months of 2022 primarily driven by decline in costs and expenses of the power business.
Sale of electricity accounted for 84 percent of revenues in the first nine months of both 2023 and 2022.
ABS-CBN reported a net loss of ₱3.33 billion, which is 78 percent higher than the net loss of ₱1.87 billion in the first nine months of 2022.
It reported unaudited revenues of ₱13.52 billion, six percent lower than ₱14.31 billion in the same period last year. Other income fell 89 percent to ₱277 million from ₱2.46 billion in the absence of significant asset sales in 2023.