By JAMES A. LOYOLA JG Summit Holdings, Inc. reported that its consolidated attributable net income fell 70 percent to ₱1.9 billion in the first quarter of 2020 from ₱6.46 billion in the same period last year due to the pandemic. In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the firm said “the significant growth in our property and banking revenues, as well as the flat topline of our food business has cushioned the negative impact of the pandemic as we immediately saw a significant decline in our airline and petrochemical revenues early in the year.” This resulted in a 10 percent decline in consolidated revenues to ₱67.9 billion in the first quarter of 2020 from ₱75.2 billion in the same period last year. Core net income after taxes amounted to ₱4.3 billion, a 19 per¬cent decline from same period last year due to lower gross margins from unfavorable market prices in JG Summit Petrochemicals Group, and higher depreciation and maintenance costs in Cebu Air, Inc. This, along with higher foreign exchange and market valuation losses of ₱2.1 billion, and JGS’ ₱905-million share in Meralco’s impairment loss from its Pacific Light Power investment and accretion expense, drove consolidated net income down. “Coming from a strong performance in 2019, the unexpected turn of events driven by the evolving global pandemic started to have a material impact to the JG Summit group in the first quarter of 2020,” JG Summit President Lance Gokongwei said. He added that, “This includes travel restrictions early in the year that affected our airline, Cebu Pacific, and the stricter social distancing measures mid-March has further resulted in the closure of RLC’s malls and hotels, disruption in URC’s supply chain and delays in our Petrochemical plant expansion. Universale Robina Corporation revenues were flat at ₱33.5 billion as the Philippine market pulled up the decline in International sales. Net income declined by 35 percent to ₱2.0 billion due to high foreign exchange loss for the period. Robinsons Land Corporation continues to perform strongly driven by its well-diversified portfolio with consolidated revenues up 68 percent to ₱11.4 billion. Net income increased faster at 82 per¬cent to ₱3.3 billion due to lower operating expenses and foreign exchange loss. Cebu Pacific revenues dropped 25 percent to ₱15.9 billion due to flight cancellations, resulting in a net loss of ₱1.2 billion.