D&L Industries Inc., the country’s largest green chemicals and food ingredients producer, is expected to exceed this year’s record performance in 2023 as the economy continues to reopen while domestic and export sales will get a boost from the opening of its Batangas plant.
In an informal chat with media after the marking of the firm’s 10th listing anniversary, D&L President and CEO Alvin D. Lao said “2023 will be an even better year than 2022.”
He noted that the company is widely expected to surpass this year its record performance in 2018 even though the first quarter 2022 was adversely affected by the surge of Covid-19 cases due to the Omicron variant.
As people gain more confidence in going out of their houses with the recent lifting of the mask mandate, Lao said the resulting rise in consumer spending should be good for their various businesses.
With the expected opening of D&L’s Batangas expansion plants in the second quarter of 2023, he said sales should rise once additional capacities come on stream.
The Batangas plant should also allow the company to ramp up its export business which currently account for 33 percent of total revenues. The reopening of the Chinese economy is also seen to recover exports to China which account for 5 percent of D&L’s overseas sales.
“I am confident that this net income growth trajectory will not only be maintained but will be surpassed in the coming years as the company’s new P10.2 billion facility in Batangas becomes operational next year, 2023,” said Philippine Stock Exchange President Ramon S. Monzon during the D&L 10th listing anniversary bell-ringing ceremony at the bourse.
Lao said “This plant represents the next leg of growth for the company and our aspiration to be recognized globally as a world class Filipino manufacturing company.”
“Confidence in the company is evident in how it has performed over the years. It emerged as one of the honored companies in the ASEAN region by New York-based Institutional Investor, a leading international business-to-business publisher, in its 2019 All-Asia Executive team survey,” noted Monzon.
He added that, “D&L President and CEO Alvin Lao was then named as the Best CEO in the Philippines and second in the whole ASEAN region. The company’s investor relations program was likewise recognized as the best in the country while the company’s ESG and corporate governance initiatives were recognized by the survey, placing the company as No. 2 in that area in the Philippines.”
“D&L’s investors have also been amply rewarded... In less than three years, its stock price reached an all-time high of P22,85, 431-percent higher than its P4.30 centavos IPO price. The company’s share price has since been adjusted downward by 50 percent, following its 100-percent stock dividend in August 2015,” Monzon said.
Speaking of dividends, he said DNL was included in the maiden selection of 20 companies that comprised the PSE Dividend Yield Index. It likewise qualified for the PSE MidCap Index. Both indices were launched by PSE in March this year.
During the IPO, Lao said D&L raised about P4.6 billion and over the past ten years, the company has returned 3 times, or a total of P13 billion in cash to shareholders through dividends.
“Aside from paying tribute to the company on its 10th listing anniversary, I think this event is a fitting occasion to wish DNL even more success as it marks its 60th year in operations next year. It is my sincere wish and hope that the DNL narrative is one that can be emulated by those planning to take their company public,” said Monzon.
Lao said that, “Looking back at the last 10 years, so many changes have happened and doors that have been opened as a result of the IPO... the IPO has allowed us to attract both retail and institutional, as well as domestic and foreign funds. Our foreign ownership has increased from nothing ten years ago to currently 14 percent or half of our public float of 28 percent. From a market capitalization of P15 billion in 2012, our market cap has grown to P56 billion as of December 9, 2022.”