Solid Group income more than doubles in first half

MANILA, Philippines - Solid Group Inc. (SGI), the flagship firm of the Lim family, reported a net income of P97 million in the first six months of the year, more than double the P37-million earnings in the same period a year ago on the back of a 39-percent growth in revenues.

In a quarterly report filed with securities regulators, SGI said total revenues reached P1.05 billion from P755 million a year earlier. Service revenues amounted to P316 million, 10 percent higher than the previous level of P288 million, mainly due to improved broadband revenues.

Sales of goods rose 20 percent to P432 million owing to the increased sales volume of the company’s digital products while sales of land jumped to P192 million or nearly 13 times the previous level.

Rental income, on the other hand, slightly dropped to P59 million while interest income surged 52 percent to P45 million.

SGI had spun off its mobile phone, LCD television and digital devices businesses into a new company with an initial authorized capital stock of P100 million. The new firm, My Solid Technologies & Devices Corp., is into manufacture, sale and importation of various types of digital communication devices, information technology, broadband and audio-video equipment, gadgets and accessories, as well as undertake product research and development.

SGI earlier said it expected sales from its mobile phone business to grow three-fold this year to P1.5 billion due to the strong take-up of its dual active SIM, which carries the My Phone brand.

My Phone is the first Filipino brand of mobile phones made in China and is specifically custom-made in China to suit Filipino preferences.

SGI launched its line of LCD televisions under the brand My Screen. They are bundled either with the Destiny cable TV service or Solid broadband Internet, or both.

The group believes the potential for LCD television in the Philippines is huge.

While there are around one million TV sets being sold every year, 32 percent is still accounted for by conventional TV sets. However, this share of the market has gone down by eight percent compared to last year and still continues to decline.

Flat TVs, on the one hand, account for 58 percent of all television sets sold. Their share of the market grew 5.6 percent compared to last year.

SGI expects the share of LCD TVs to reach 10 percent of the market, especially with the price of LCD panels going down and picture quality fast improving.