By James A. Loyola   JG SUMMIT 25TH LISTING ANNIVERSARY – Marking the 25th listing anniversary of JG Summit at the Philippine Stock Exchange on August 9, 2018 are (from left): JGS Director Robina Y. Gokongwei-Pe; JGS President and CEO Lance Y. Gokongwei; Universal Robina Corporation/JGS VP for Corporate Advertising and Public Relations Patricia C. Go; Mrs. Elizabeth Y. Gokongwei; JGS Chairman James L. Go; JGS Founder and Chairman Emeritus John L. Gokongwei Jr.; Gokongwei Brothers Foundation General Manager Lisa Y. Gokongwei-Cheng; JGS Independent Director Antonio L. Go; JGS Advisory Board Member Aloysius B. Colayco; PSE Chairman Jose T. Pardo; PSE President and CEO Ramon S. Monzon; PSE Director Wilson L. Sy; JGS Directors Johnson Robert G. Go Jr. and Patrick Henry C. Go. JG Summit Holdings, Inc. reported a 32.8 percent drop in consolidated net income to P9.8 billion as higher costs of its airline business and foreign exchange (forex) losses weighed down profitability. In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the firm said consolidated sales for the six-month period ended June 30, 2018 improved 8 percent to P145.3 billion. “While we continue to face the challenges arising from inflation and the weaker currency further exacerbated by tougher competitive dynamics, we are delighted to see improvements in our second quarter 2018 results,” said JG Summit President Lance Y. Gokongwei. He added that, “we believe that we can navigate this environment with the fundamentals of each of our businesses intact and issues are more cyclical than structural. The group’s balance sheet is also strong to withstand these short-term challenges and we plan to continue investing for longer term growth.” Consolidated revenues for the second quarter registered at P74.6 billion, a stronger year-on-year growth of 11.4 percent versus the first quarter’s 4.7 percent. The acceleration was mainly driven by improvements in Universal Robina Corporation’s (URC) Branded Consumer Foods (BCF) Philippines and Agro- Industrial & Commodities (AIC), The sustained growth momentum across Robinsons Land Corporation’s (RLC) business units, and higher average selling prices of JG Petrochemical Group’s (Petrochem) products. “Each of these business units, as well as Robinsons Bank (RBank), posted double-digit topline growth in the second quarter of 2018,” JG Summit said. These were tempered by the 4.2 percent increase in Cebu Air’s (CEB) revenues and the 5.6 percent rise in JGS’ equity in net earnings of associates – Manila Electric Company, United Industrial Corporation (UIC) and Global Business Power Corporation (GBPC). However, the margin pressures in the first quarter of the year persisted in the second quarter, – the weaker Philippine peso and higher fuel prices augmented input costs of URC, CEB and Petrochem. Moreover, URC and CEB posted higher general, selling and distribution expenses in the second quarter. Thus, consolidated core net income after taxes fell 22.9 percent to P5.9 billion in the second quarter. This is at the same pace with first quarter’s decline as the revenue-driven improvements in URC, RLC, Petrochem and RBank were offset by the 58.9 percent drop in CEB’s core net income.