Tycoon Lucio Co is consolidating his retail grocery businesses further with the acquisition by Puregold Price Club Inc. of the Co family’s 153 Puremart stores for P567.5 million.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), Puregold said it is acquiring all the Puremart stores located across Metro Manila, CAMANAVA, Rizal, Bulacan, and South Luzon, including its leasehold improvements, furniture and fixtures, equipment and merchandise inventory from Tower 6789 Corporation.
Tower 6789 Corporation is a domestic corporation wholly owned by League One Inc. which is 100 percent owned by the Co family, making this a related-party transaction.
“As such, this matter was initially endorsed for the approval of Puregold Price Club Inc.’s audit committee, pursuant to its policy on Related Party Transactions,” it noted.
The consideration for the acquisition is based on the carrying value of the Puremart assets as of Sept. 30, 2024.
Puregold reported a 4.5 percent growth in consolidated net income to P6.9 billion in the first nine months of 2024 from P6.6 billion in the same period last year.
The firm said it grew consolidated revenue by 9.1 percent to P151.97 billion in the first nine months of 2024 from P139.3 billion in the same period last year.
In the first nine months of 2024, the enterprise experienced positive same store sales growth (SSSG) of 3.5 percent from Puregold Stores and 4.1 percent from S&R Warehouse clubs driven by higher traffic and basket size.
Puregold said its topline growth was complemented by the slight improvement in gross margins for the S&R Warehouse club business. It added that, the company continues to see a buoyant trajectory in topline growth for the remainder of 2024.
As of end-September 2024, PGOLD opened 19 new Puregold stores, three S&R Membership Shopping Warehouse and three S&R New York Style QSR (quick service restaurants).
The group had a total of 591 stores nationwide. These include 505 Puregold stores, 29 S&R Membership Shopping Warehouses, and 57 S&R New York Style QSRs.