Gokongwei flagship firm JG Summit Holdings Inc. said its wholly-owned offshore unit JGSH Philippines Ltd. has secured a $300-million term loan facility from a syndicate of financial institutions.
JG Summit said the facility, arranged by ING Bank NV, will be used to retire maturing obligations.
JG Summit posted a net income of P8.61 billion last year, an increase of 33.4 percent from the previous year, on the back of higher contributions from its airline, food, property and telecommunications units.
Consolidated revenues rose 7.5 percent to P92.52 billion from P86.06 billion a year earlier, with food and beverage unit Universal Robina Corp. accounting for 40.8 percent of total.
JG Summit’s airline business, Cebu Air, was the group’s second biggest revenue contributor with a record revenue of P15.02 billion or 54.5 percent higher than the previous level of P9.72 billion. It carried almost 5.5 million passengers last year, up 58 percent from the previous level of nearly 3.5 million passengers, making it the single largest domestic carrier in the country today.
From a net income of only P196.79 million, Cebu Air’s net profit surged to P3.61 billion as it registered P1.9 billion in foreign exchange gains from the conversion of its dollar-denominated debt into pesos.
Its real estate unit Robinsons Land Corp. chipped in revenues of P8.28 billion, an increase of 24.8 percent from the year earlier’s P6.4 billion, due to the continued strong demand for its residential condominium and BPO office projects.
Digital Telecommunications Philippines Inc., on the other hand, pumped in P8.31 billion in revenues, 8.9 percent higher than the previous level due to the increased subscriber base of its cellular business, Sun Cellular.
The significant increase in Sun Cellular’s revenues was attributed to Digitel’s aggressive rollout of its network, which started in 2006. This compensated for the decline in its fixed-line service revenues caused by the continuing shift towards mobile telephony.
As a result, Digitel swung back to a net income of P1.17 billion from a net loss of P962.91 million mainly because of foreign exchange gains recognized on the translation of its dollar-denominated obligations, amounting to P5.15 billion.
Its petrochemicals unit JG Summit Petrochemicals contributed lower revenues of P5.15 billion although it managed to narrow down its losses to only P722.4 million from a whopping P3.36 billion. In 2006, JG Petrochemicals recognized impairment loss of its assets amounting to P3.86 billion.
JG Summit said equity income of the International Capital and Financial Services Group likewise rose 50 percent from P1.08 billion to P1.62 billion because of higher income posted by UIC, a Singapore-based listed company in which it owns a 33.5-percent stake.
The group’s equity income in First Private Power Corp., where it has 20-percent shareholding, amounted to P234 million.
Other income grew 83.6 percent from P6.54 billion to P12.01 billion while foreign exchange gains recorded during the year under review amounted to P7.21 billion as the peso grew stronger against the dollar from 49.03 : $1 in 2006 to 41.28 to $1 at end-2007.
EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) excluding non-recurring items went up 34.8 percent from P22.48 billion to P30.29 billion with major improvements in food, property, and airlines, boosted by growth in revenues, foreign exchange gains and better cost management.