Pryce sells memorial park business to focus on LPG

MANILA, Philippines - Pryce Corp. has decided to sell its memorial parks to bankroll the expansion of its liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) business.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Pryce said it secured board approval to “sell any or all of the company’s memorial parks or transfer the same to a subsidiary to facilitate the sale under a tax-free exchange system.”

The proceeds of the sale will be “invested in or advanced to its subsidiary Pryce Gases Inc. to assist in financing expansion activities of the latter related to the latter’s LPG business,” Pryce said.

The LPG business is currently the company’s biggest source of income.

In the first quarter of 2016, Pryce said it capped the period with a 53 percent rise in consolidated net income from P128.16 million in the first quarter of 2015 to P196.42 million this year.

The company said growth is largely attributed to the 23 percent increase in LPG sales volume from 32,981 metric tons (MT) to 40,583 MT, resulting from its strategic expansion in 2015.

Consolidated revenues increased eight percent from P1.345 billion to P1.453 billion, of which LPG sales accounted for 91 percent.

Meanwhile, the company ended 2015 with a 98 percent increase in unaudited, consolidated net income to P586.3 million from P296.9 million in 2014, a record year due to hefty LPG sales and improvement in margins.

Pryce owns and operates memorial parks in Mindanao’s major and secondary cities, and is also engaged in hotel operations, such as a convention hotel Pryce Plaza in Cagayan de Oro City.