Jollibee, LTDI lead small pack of gainers in 2002

In a generally lackluster year for equities trading, two consumer-driven companies stood out to lead a small pack of blue chips whose stock prices went soaring – Jollibee Foods Corp. (JFC) and La Tondeña Distillers Inc. (LTDI).

As the year 2002 ended, both issues chalked up identical year-to-date gains of 49 percent, with JFC closing at P18.25 per share while LTDI stocks were registered at P35 each, records from the Philippine Stock Exchange show.

At yesterday’s close, LTDI’s price was unchanged while JFC inched up 25 centavos to P18.50, indicative of the two continued resiliency amid the sluggish market. The 30-company composite index started the year 2003 weak, shedding 9.77 points to 1,008.64. For the whole of 2002, the Phisix had lost 12.81 percent of its value since the beginning of the year.

Aside from the two stocks, several other index-linked issues bucked the overall downtrend in 2002. These include LTDI’s parent firm San Miguel Corp., International Container Terminal Services Inc., Petron Corp., Digital Telecommunications Inc. and Equitable PCI Bank. However, their price performance trailed the two stocks by a considerable distance, ranging from gains of 39.5 percent in SMC A shares and 5.3 percent in Digitel.

The rest of the blue chips mirrored the performance of the stock market the past year – in the doldrums – as their respective internal woes further dampened the collective sentiment of investors already concerned over a slew of political and economic problems here and abroad, from the country’s ballooning budget deficit and security concerns to the looming threat of a US-Iraq military confrontation.

The Lopez stocks (Benpres Holdings, Meralco, ABS-CBN Broadcasting and First Philippine Holdings) were most affected, price-wise, although other conglomerates also failed to strike positive territory, among them the Ayala Group, the JG Summit Group and the Metro Pacific/PLDT Group.

A report by a leading local brokerage RCBC Securities attributed LTDI’s performance to a "masterful" handling of its operations and finances, as its net income in the first nine months of 2002 rose 41 percent to P1.16 billion primarily due to volume improvements, effective cost containment and significant reduction in interest expenses.

"Efficiencies on both sides have been effectively squeezed out, resulting in healthy earnings growth throughout the year," RCBC said. "Our compliment to LTDI is that it has done everything we had hoped for earlier in the year.

As such, RCBC said their net income target of P1.6 billion for 2002 is "very much within striking distance given the traditional fourth quarter run."

For JFC, RCBC said it remains one of the most stable and well-managed companies in the Philippines, as indicated by topping the Far Eastern Economic Review survey of the best companies last year – the fifth consecutive year it has earned the top spot.