Splash sells Medical City stake for P295 M

MANILA, Philippines - Personal care products manufacturer Splash Corp. is selling its minority stake in The Medical City.

The divestment of this non-core asset will allow Splash to concentrate on the personal care and food businesses.

In a regulatory filing, the company said it sold 50,000 shares in Professional Services Inc. (PSI) to Fountel Corp. and Viva Holdings (Philippines) Pte. Ltd. for P295 million.

Splash’s holds around seven percent of PSI, the company behind Pasig-based The Medical City.

With fresh capital from the sale of the asset, Splash said its board approved the company’s programmed P87.57-million capital expenditures for 2014.

It is a third higher than the P66 million spent this year but still below the P294 million in 2012 and P426 million in 2011.

Early this year, the Hortaleza-led firm committed to unload non-core assets like the PSI stake and a property project with Vista Land & Lifescape Inc.’s Crown Asia worth P141.96 million.

In January to September this year, Splash’s profits surged by half to P22.67 million from P15.12 million a year ago even as cost of goods sold eased 6.19 percent to P1.06 billion from P1.13 billion while net sales slightly fell 1.22 percent to P2.49 billion from P2.53 billion.

Splash carries the brands Extraderm, Maxi-Peel, Skin White and Bioskin, one of the fastest-growing skin care brands in the country.

In 2011, Splash bought an 80-percent stake in Barrio Fiesta Manufacturing for P472 million. Bonifacio E. Ongpauco Jr. and his children sold their shares in the condiments and canned goods maker, jump starting the product and brand diversification of Splash.

In March, its sales, marketing and logistics arm Prime Global Corp. signed contracts to provide nationwide logistics services for food products Master Chef Sea Salt of Arvin International Inc. and Royal Brands FishSauce from Royal Brands of Thailand.