Ayala Corporation, the country’s oldest conglomerate, reported a 19 percent drop in net income to P5.4 billion in the first quarter of 2021 from the same period last year.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the firm said core net income declined nine percent to P7.2 billion in the first quarter from the same period last year.
Ayala Land recorded a 36 percent net income decline to P2.8 billion as the pandemic continued to affect its business operations while Bank of the Philippine Islands posted a net income decline of 22 percent to P5 billion as a result of a one-time tax adjustments.
Globe Telecom’s net income increased 11 percent to P7.3 billion while AC Energy posted a net income growth of 24 percent to P2.4 billion, driven by higher earnings from both international and Philippine businesses.
Ayala’s core net income, which excludes the significant increase in BPI’s loan loss provisions and one-off items such as the retroactive effect of the CREATE law and the additional remeasurement loss taken for Manila Water, grew five percent to P7.2 billion in the first quarter of 2021 from the fourth quarter of 2020.
This is also at par with the core net income generated in the first quarter of 2019, pre-pandemic. The quarter-on-quarter improvement in core net income was primarily driven by Globe from stronger contribution from its home broadband segment and AC Energy from its commercial operations.
This cushioned the weaker performance of Ayala Land, AC Industrials, and AC Ventures.
“The challenges and prospects brought about by the pandemic is an opportune time to recalibrate Ayala’s portfolio strategy,” Ayala President and CEO Fernando Zobel de Ayala said.
He noted that, “In the next three years, we aim to sharpen the components of our portfolio to optimize returns and further strengthen our balance sheet.”
“We will place greater emphasis on portfolio strategy with a sharper focus on optimizing returns from existing businesses and a disciplined process on capital deployment. In parallel, we will actively explore opportunities for value realization to fund future investments,” Zobel added.