JG Summit income jumps 91% to P16.32B in 2010

MANILA, Philippines - JG Summit Holdings Inc. reported a 91-percent jump in net profit last year to P16.32 billion on the record performance of most of its subsidiaries, the Gokongwei-owned investment holding firm said in a statement.

Core earnings before taxes, excluding the effects of foreign exchange and mark-to-market gains or losses, reached P18.71 billion, up 75 percent from the previous year.

Consolidated revenues rose 13 percent to P121.74 billion while gross income went up 22 percent to P52.99 billion.  

Telecommunications unit Digitel posted net earnings of P429.6 million, up 65.4 percent from P259.7 million.  Consolidated service and non-service revenues hit P16.54 billion, an improvement of 18 percent over the same period a year earlier and represented about 14 percent of groups’ revenues.

The increase was largely due to the 27.1-percent growth in the wireless segment, driven by higher subscribers owing to the introduction of more affordable and innovative products.

However, wireline and voice communication service revenues fell 9.7 percent due to lower international and domestic tolls and local exchange partially offset by the growth of Suntel and ADSL products which registered a 17-percent rise.

Wireline data communication service revenues rose 10.2 percent to P475.28 million due to the increase in domestic data and Internet services through its IP VPN services new subscriptions.

JG Summit Petrochemicals Corp., on the other hand, trimed its loss by 80 percent to P102.1 million, largely due to foreign exchange gains. Revenues fell to P3.31 billion from P5.57 billion due to lower sales.

The group’s financial services business, which include Robinsons Savings Bank and Robinson Bank Corp. (formerly Royal Bank of Scotland Phils.) pumped in P298.3 million in net earnings last year, 47.1 percent above the 2009 level of P202.8 million.  Revenues grew to P1.73 billion.

While JG Summit’s operating expenses increased by 10 percent as a result of higher level of business activity of its food, telecommunications and airline businesses, consolidated operating income grew 43 percent due to better operating efficiencies that led to improved margins.

Financing costs and other charges declined by 18 percent to P3.87 billion as the group was able to generate additional interest income towards the latter part of the year on the proceeds from the successful initial public offering (IPO) of Cebu Pacific in October 2010.

The group booked P1.63 billion in gains from the market valuation of its financial assets and P2.8 billion in foreign exchange gain as it benefited from the stabilization of the capital markets as well as the strengthening of the peso.

As of end-December last year, JG Summit had consolidated assets of P326.3 billion while stockholders’ equity increased to P117.61 billion from P83.16 billion.

The group spent P27.8 for its capital expenditures last year.

JG summit recognized P2.65 billion in equity earnings from Singapore-listed firm United Industrial Corp. Ltd., down nine percent from 2009’s P2.9 billion.