JG Summit Holdings Inc. (JGS), the flagship of the Gokongwei Group, reported a 43 percent jump in consolidated attributable net income to P14.8 billion in the first half of 2024 from the same period last year.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), the firm said it generated a 99 percent increase in its core profits driven by the strong demand for travel and leisure activities as well as the realized gains from its bank merger at the start of the year.

JG Summit’s core net income after taxes totaled P18.1 billion in the first half of 2024, twice the amount recognized in the previous year. 

Boosted by the year-on-year (YoY) margin improvement in its core businesses, higher equity earnings from its investment in Manila Electric Company, and the first quarter bank merger gain excluding the P7.9 billion merger gain, recurring core profits grew 12 percent YoY.

Fueling this robust performance was the company’s double-digit topline growth of 15 percent to reach P187.8 billion in the first half of 2024 as the group saw rising demand for tourism and recreation, along with increased petrochemical operations plus higher food and beverage sales volumes.

Dividend receipts from its investee companies went up 13 percent YoY to P10.3 billion in the first half of 2024, as increases from Universal Robina Corporation, Robinsons Land Corporation, and the first cash dividends received from Bank of the Philippine Islands more than made up for the absence of PLDT’s 2023 special dividends. 

“We continue to post overall topline growth despite the lingering effects of inflation which dampened consumer sentiment,” said JG Summit President and CEO Lance Y. Gokongwei. 

He noted that “we have seen a divergence of results from our operating units with the strong demand for travel and leisure benefiting our air transport and real estate businesses." 

“Our food and beverage unit continues to deliver higher sales volumes, but product mix has changed into lower price point categories, while increased plant utilization in our petrochemicals unit pulled up revenues in the first half. Coupled with our initiatives to drive productivity and better operating leverage, we have now seen improvements in margins,” he said.

Gokongwei added that “as we move to the second half, we hope to sustain this momentum with the expected decline in inflation that in turn could ignite the sequential rebound in consumer demand."

“We will continue to execute our commercial strategies to drive topline growth while implementing overall operational discipline to ensure we sustain the year-on-year recovery in core net income and margins," he also said.