Conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) on Thursday said its income in the first quarter soared to P17.17 billion, almost a 15-fold increase from the previous year’s P1.09 billion despite the decline in its revenues.
Net sales fell by 6 percent compared with the 15-percent drop recorded a year ago as almost all its major businesses saw significant recoveries. In the first quarter, net sales reached P201.16 billion, lower than the previous year’s P214.06 billion.
“We’re encouraged by these improvements, as they reflect that our businesses are definitely headed towards full recovery. Despite the challenges ahead, we’re determined to sustain our performance and continue taking on meaningful projects and investments that will help our economy recover,” said SMC President and COO Ramon S. Ang.
With lower raw material costs and effective cost-saving efforts, consolidated operating income reached P32.2 billion, almost a three-fold increase from the previous year.
San Miguel Food and Beverage Inc.’s income for the period jumped 66 percent to P9.67 billion from the previous year’s P5.82 billion due to the all-time high volumes from the liquor unit and higher sales from the food and beer divisions.
SMC Global Power Holdings Corp. reported an income of P7.77 billion, more than double of last year’s P3.22 billion. Revenues, meanwhile, slid 3 percent to P27.4 billion from the previous P28.29 billion. It had off-take volumes of 6,344 Gigawatt hour for the period, down by 5 percent from the previous year, mainly due to continuing quarantine restrictions and lower spot sales, which were mitigated by higher average realization prices.
Operating income year-on-year grew 8 percent to P8.4 billion, brought about by lower fuel costs and operating expenses.
Petron reported a net income of P1.7 billion, a turnaround from the P4.87-billion net loss in the first quarter of last year. Sales volumes continued to decline, posting a 20-percent fall during the period to P83.3 billion from the previous year’s P104.62 billion. It had volumes of 19.4 million barrels, 21 percent lower than the 24.7 million barrels sold in the same period in 2020.
SMC Infrastructure’s income from operations slid 33 percent to P1.18 billion from the previous year’s P1.77 billion. Revenues for the first quarter stood at P4.3 billion, down 7 percent from the same period last year of P4.66 billion.
Average daily traffic has been improving since December despite prevailing travel restrictions. South Luzon Expressway and Star or the Southern Tagalog Arterial Road tollways registered higher average daily traffic volumes compared to the first quarter of last year.
SMC reported in March that its net income for 2020 reached P21.88 billion, down by more than half from the previous year’s P48.57 billion, as revenues plummeted to below P1 trillion.
Its annual sales last year fell drastically due to the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic. The company said its revenue fell 29 percent to P725.79 billion from the previous year’s P1.02 trillion.
Read full article on BusinessMirror