SMIC income grows 13% in 2018

MANILA, Philippines — The Sy family’s listed conglomerate SM Investments Corp. (SMIC) saw its net income rise by 13 percent last year to P37.1 billion on the back of a strong performance across its property, retail, and banking operations.

Its property business under SM Prime Holdings accounted for 41 percent of the group’s total earnings, while banks under BDO Unibank Inc. and retail through SM Retail comprised 38 percent and 21 percent, respectively.

SMIC registered P449.8 billion in revenues, 13 percent higher from the previous year’s P397.9 billion.

“Our very good results in 2018 were driven by all three core businesses, retail, banking and property, each of which delivered strong revenue growth and also strong earnings growth. We remain optimistic about the economic environment and growth opportunities for the group in 2019,” SM president Frederic DyBuncio said.

For its property business, SM Prime posted a consolidated net income growth of 17 percent in 2018 to P32.2 billion, with consolidated revenues up 14 percent year-on-year to P104.1 billion.

Mall revenues grew 11 percent to P59.3 billion, driven by the rising contribution of rentals from new and expanded malls launched mostly in the developing provincial areas from 2017 to 2018.

The residential group, led by SM Development Corp., reported a revenue growth of 22 percent to P36.5 billion in 2018 behind strong sales take-up from projects such as Shore 3 Residences in the Mall of Asia Complex, Fame Residences in Mandaluyong City and Bloom Residences in Parañaque City.

Meanwhile, operations under SM Retail, which consist of non-food (The SM Store and specialty stores) and food stores (SM Markets), posted a net income growth of eight percent to P11.3 billion and total revenues of P335.6 billion last year.

The SM Store opened four stores in Urdaneta, Telebastagan, Legazpi and Valenzuela last year, bringing the total gross selling areas of all 63 department stores at 797,740 square meters.

The food group, which includes SM Supermarket, SM Hypermarket, Savemore, Alfamart and WalterMart, added 210 new stores in 2018.

As of end-2018, SM Retail had a total of 2,328 outlets, comprising 63 The SM Stores, 1,383 specialty retail outlets, 56 SM Supermarkets, 53 SM Hypermarkets and 195 Savemore, 52 WalterMart and 526 Alfamart stores.

SMIC’s banking operations also had a strong 2018, with BDO reporting a net income of P32.7 billion, up 17 year-on-year, while China Banking Corp. posted a net income growth of seven percent to P8.1 billion.