MANILA, Philippines — Corporations see business volatility persisting in the short term, but are banking on the arrival of more vaccines to help the economy recover as first quarter corporate earnings remained bleak.
Lance Gokongwei, president and CEO of JG Summit Holdings, said short term volatility would continue.
“While we remain optimistic about the long term prospects of the group in a post COVID world, we are realistic with our view that short term volatility will continue to persist,” he said.
Gokongwei said while the company has seen sequential improvement in its business results in the last two to three quarters, the implementation of a stricter lockdown in the NCR+ bubble which impeded mobility is like a reset once again.
“We expect though that the headwinds will start dissipating once the vaccine rollout is accelerated, but surmise that the shape of the recovery will vary across industries in our portfolio,” Gokongwei said on Friday as the company reported its first quarter earnings.
Kevin Tan, CEO of Andrew Tan’s Alliance Global Group, likewise said the group supports vaccination efforts, particularly the mega vaccination center being planned by the ICTSI Foundation of ports tycoon Enrique Razon Jr.
Razon said the planned temporary mega vaccination center in aid of the Philippine government’s goal to inoculate as many Filipinos as possible, would curb the further spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and help achieve herd immunity by yearend.
Fernando Zobel de Ayala, president and CEO of Ayala Corp., said the company is cautiously optimistic about the business environment and would continue to prepare for a post-pandemic economic recovery.
“We are hoping for a successful implementation of the country’s vaccination program that would pave the way for a revival of the economy. We expect our business operations to return to the 2019 levels by 2023,” Zobel said during the company’s annual stockholders meeting last month.
Ayala Corp reported core earnings of P7.2 billion in the first quarter, down nine percent from a year ago, but up five percent from the previous quarter.
Michael Tan, president and COO of Lucio Tan’s LT Group Inc., likewise said the key to a faster recovery is vaccination.
“Even as the economy is restarted under different permutations of the quarantine thereafter, it will take a while before our economy goes back to the normal or to what it used to be. The key to a faster recovery would be the availability of a vaccine, which we hope will be sooner than later,” Tan said during the recent annual stockholders meeting of LTG.
LT Group Inc., Lucio Tan’s listed holding company, reported a net income of P6.49 billion in the first quarter, up P276 million or 4.5 percent from P6.21 billion a year ago.