By James A. Loyola
LT Group, Inc., the flagship of taipan Lucio Tan, registered a 22 percent growth in unaudited attributable net income to P4.42 billion for the first quarter of 2019 from the P3.63 billion earned in the same period last year.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the firm said Philippine National Bank (PNB) contributed P1.08 billion or 24 percent of total attributable income.
The tobacco business accounted for P2.84 billion or 64 percent of total, Tanduay Distillers, Inc. added P229 million or five percent, Eton Properties Philippines, Inc. accounted for P148 million or three percent while Asia Brewery, Inc. (ABI) provided P82 million or two percent of total.
LTG’s 30.9 percent stake in Victorias Milling Company, Inc. (VMC) accounted for P75 million, or two percent.
PNB’s net income under the pooling method was P1.95 billion for the first quarter of the year, 30 percent higher than the same period in 2018.
LTG’s tobacco business reported a net income of P2.85 billion for the first three months of 2019, 21 percent more than in the same period last year. Equity in net earnings from LTG’s 49.6 percent stake in PMFTC rose 18 percent to P2.69 billion.
TDI’s net income surged 73 percent to P234 million in the first quarter of 2019 from the P135 million reported for the same period last year as revenues from liquor increased on the back of a five percent growth in volume, while bioethanol sales also improved.
Eton ended the quarter with a net income of P149 million, 54 percent higher than the P97 million recorded in the first quarter of 2018 due to the increase in revenues from leasing and sale of residential units.