PSE [PSE 170.00 unch] “STAR” event [link] will happen over three days, from August 16 through 18. Several high-profile companies will brief the general public on their Q2 and H1 results, and take questions on those results live. It’s a great opportunity for anyone that didn’t get a chance to attend something like this before to get a taste for the give and take of corporate governance at this level. This will be a fantastic event, and I encourage every reader to register and attend in any way possible.
Wilcon [WLCON 25.40 6.95%] [link] Q2 profit up 56% y/y and up 18% q/q to P1.0 billion, driven by higher sales, contributions from new locations, and bigger margins on goods sold. WLCON said that it is on track to meet its expansion goal of 8 new locations this year. The challenge for WLCON has always been to build. Margin growth is a nice-to-have, but when sales are expanding and the top-line is so responsive to new locations, it’s time. Build, build, build, build. Then build some more.
Belle Corp [BEL 1.20 unch] [link] Q2 profit up 347% y/y, and up 32% q/q, to P546 million, driven by “higher lease income, better real estate sales and improved share in gaming revenues” thanks to relaxed movement restrictions. BEL is primarily a gaming company, and as a gaming company, it’s going to have an easy time jumping over the low-bar of its depressed 2021 earnings thanks to the Duterte-era movement restrictions that decimated gaming revenues. Still, I see some news saying that a full recovery of international travel won’t happen until 2026, so even though we’re seeing healthier numbers from BEL and other casino gaming stocks, the ability of these flytraps to snag rich foreign flies is somewhat hampered by the continued weakness in the international travel scene. BEL also recently appointed Joseph Tan Chua to its board, to fill the vacancy created when Jaime Bautista left to become the Secretary of Transportation.
Solar Philippines NEC [SPNEC 1.66 1.22%] [link] amended its stockholders’ meeting notice to include an agenda, including a vote on a corporate name change (Point 7), and a vote on a change of SPNEC’s fiscal year (Point 8). SPNEC’s current fiscal year runs from July 1 through June 30, a change that was just adopted last year. As for the name change, perhaps they’re looking to ditch the “Nueva Ecija” portion since they’ve basically ditched the business plan that the company was named after in favor or what amounts to something of a backdoor listing of its parent company, Solar Philippines? We’ll have to wait and see! Meeting is on August 30.
Cemex Holdings [CHP 0.75 1.35%] [link] signs a P6.6 billion “facility” with BDO [BDO 119.40 up 2.05%], that CHP can use to refinance an older facility that it already has with BDO. In this context, a “facility” is just a line of credit that a company can draw from and pay down over time. While CHP is up over 25% over the past week of trading, it’s down over 86% over the past 5 years, and down 25% since the start of 2022. It’s a sign of life, but not a sign of change.
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