JG Summit profit falls in 3 months

Gokongwei-led JG Summit Holdings Inc. saw its first quarter profit fall 22 percent to P7.51 billion.

The decline was attributed to the lower net income of its airline business as a result of rising fuel prices as well as hedging losses incurred during the period.

Cebu Air registered a 68.2 percent drop in net income to P1.28 billion.

“The depreciation of the Philippine peso against the US dollar for the first quarter of 2017 also contributed to the consolidated net income decline,” JG Summit said.

JG Summit’s consolidated revenues, however, grew 11.4 percent to P67.51 billion, driven by the 61 percent rise in revenues of its petrochemicals business to P10.78 billion.

Net earnings of JG Summit Petrochemicals Group, surged to P2.46 billion from P1.07 billion.

Universal Robina Corp. (URC), the company’s food and beverage arm, boosted its revenues by 7.6 percent to P30.69 billion while revenues from banking subsidiary Robinsons Bank Corp. similarly increased by 25.4 percent to P1.01 billion.

Despite lower profits, Cebu Pacific still managed to grow its revenues by a 4.7 percent to P16.86 billion.

However, Robinsons Land Corp. registered a slight drop in revenues to P5.42 billion due to less realized sales in its residential segment.

Operating expenses rose 14.5 percent to P12.22 billion due to higher selling, general and administrative costs, particularly in the group’s airline and food businesses.