By James A. Loyola
Emperador, Inc., the world’s largest brandy company, reported a 10 percent improvement in attributable net income to P1.74 billion in the first quarter of the year.
Emperador inc. logo (Courtesy of PSEedge)
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the firm said it registered revenues of P11 billion in the first quarter of 2019, up 13 percent versus the same period last year.
“Our overall business continues to show robust performance. Following 2018’s exceptional year with business growing in every region of the world - from Europe to North America, from Middle East to Africa, and from the Pacific to Asia,” Emperador President Winston Co said.
He noted that, “whisky and premium brandy sales in the first three months of 2019 again proved to be strong. This continues to be driven by our malt whisky and premiumization strategy.”
The company introduced three malt whiskies to enhance the malt portfolio of Whyte and Mackay in the last two years which further solidified the company’s compelling malt strategy. The three brands showed robust signs of growth during the first quarter of 2019.
“For our brandy business, the first three months of 2019 again saw premium brandy driving growth. Fundador and Tres Cepas were the fastest growing brandies amongst the foreign brandies sold in the Philippines during the first quarter of this year. With the premium brandies exhibiting growth, our brandy premiumization is well underway,” said Co.
Meanwhile, the company has recently announced an extension of its two-year share buyback of up to P5 billion that is scheduled to end by middle this month. Emperador can repurchase up to P3 billion for another 12 months ending on May 16, 2020.
Since the start of the buyback two years ago, about 279 million shares have been bought back, amounting to approximately P2-billion.