By James A. Loyola
SM Investments Corporation (SM), the flagship of the Sy family, registered a 13 percent growth in net income to P37.1 billion last year from P32.9 billion in 2017 on stronger revenues.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the firm said its consolidated revenues also rose 13 percent to P449.8 billion in 2018 from P397.9 billion the previous year.
Property accounted for 41 percent of total earnings, with banks comprising 38 percent and retail 21 percent.
“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,” SM President Frederic C. DyBuncio said.
He added that, “we remain optimistic about the economic environment and growth opportunities for the group in 2019.”
Operations under SM Retail, Inc., which consist of non-food (The SM Store and specialty stores) and food stores (SM Markets), reported total revenues grew 12 percent to P335.6 billion from P299.2 billion in 2017. Net income likewise grew 8 percent to P11.3 billion from P10.4 billion the previous year.
The SM Store opened four stores last year with total gross selling areas of all 63 department stores in 2018 amounting to 797,740 square meters.
The food group, which includes SM Markets (SM Supermarket, SM Hypermarket and Savemore), Alfamart and WalterMart, added 210 new stores in 2018.
SM Prime Holdings posted a consolidated net income growth of 17 percent in 2018 to P32.2 billion as consolidated revenues rose 14 percent to P104.1 billion in 2018.
BDO Unibank, Inc. (BDO) posted a net income of P32.7 billion in 2018, up 17 percent while China Banking Corporation (China Bank) reported net income growth of 7 percent to P8.1 billion.