DMCI net profit soars 95% to P18.9 B in 2013

MANILA, Philippines - Profits of Consunji-led DMCI Holdings Inc. nearly doubled last year, boosted by the sale of its stake in a water distributor and strong performance of core businesses.

In a regulatory filing, the investment firm of the Consunji family said its consolidated net profit surged 95 percent to P18.9 billion in 2013 from P9.73 billion in 2012.

It includes a P8.4-billion one-time gain after partners DMCI Holdings and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. sold a 20-percent stake in Maynilad Water Services Inc. to Japan’s Marubeni Corp. for roughly $400 million early last year.

“Core net income, which was boosted by the strong profit growth of the power segment, grew by nine percent to P10.6 billion in 2013 from P9.7 billion in 2012,” DMCI Holdings said.

“This growth is a result of the successful synergy between the coal and power business coupled with the increased generation output of the Calaca power units,” it added.

For the entire 2013, the power generation business accounted for nearly a third of core earnings at P3.47 billion, followed by real estate (P2.65 billion), water utility (P1.91 billion), construction (P1.27 billion), coal mining (P1.02 billion), nickel mining (P169 million) and parent company (P65 million).

DMCI Holdings also reported an eight-percent growth in consolidated revenues to P56 billion last year from P51.7 billion in the previous period.

“The increase in revenue is mostly due to higher power generation sales and a surge in recognized revenues from the real estate segment,” DMCI Holdings said.

The uptick offset the weakness in global commodity prices that negatively affected the nickel and coal mining segments.

In terms of the business segments, subsidiary Semirara Mining Corp. slumped 41 percent to P1.8 billion from P3.1 billion in 2012 mainly due to the 13-percent drop in coal revenues to P12.57 billion from P14.45 billion.

“This was countered by a surge in the net income coming from the power generation business amounting to P5.7 billion this year compared to P3.3 billion in the previous year due to higher energy generation capacity from the rehabilitated Calaca power plants,” DMCI Holdings said.

For its part, real estate operations delivered P2.65 billion in net income, up 26 percent from P2.1 billion a year ago due to high volume of sales and completion of several projects. Subsidiary DMCI Project Developers Inc. operates under the brand name DMCI Homes.