JG Summit Holdings, Inc. (JGS), the flagship of the Gokongwei Group, is optimistic that its revenues and core earnings will continue to improve this year although shutdown costs of its petrochemical plant took a sizeable bite out of profits.

“We are hopeful that the encouraging trends we are seeing in improving consumer sentiment brought about by the tempering inflation coupled with the favorable forex and oil prices will help accelerate demand and translate to better topline growth and improving margins for the balance of the year,” said JGS President and CEO Lance Y. Gokongwei.

He noted that, “We continue to build on the momentum brought about by the strategic interventions we have implemented in the second half of last year. This is evident across our core units in food, with its branded consumer foods business posting double digit volume growth, and airline, with strong passenger and cargo volumes in the recently concluded quarter.”

He said Robinsons Land Corporation’s investment portfolio consisting of malls, offices, hotels, and warehouses continues to counterbalance the weakness in the residential segment.

“Our new businesses in logistics and airport operations are now profit generating while we are seeing a very good trajectory for our digital bank to break-even in the near term. Our decision to extend the shutdown of our petrochemical unit will also help reduce the drag on our profitability,” Gokongwei added.

The absence of last year’s ₱7.9 billion Robinsons Bank-BPI merger gains largely accounted for the decline in JGS’ core profits from ₱12.6 billion in the first quarter of 2024 to ₱4.4 billion in the same quarter this year.

Excluding the merger gains and the losses from its petrochemical business, core net income declined seven percent year-on-year (YoY) from ₱8.0 billion to ₱7.4 billion, mainly driven by the increased costs associated with the significant fleet investments made by its airline in the second half of the previous year.

After taking into account non-core items, the company’s bottomline ended at ₱4.3 billion in the first quarter of 2025, coming from ₱11.0 billion in the same period last year (SPLY).

In addition, JG Summit expects to receive at least ₱11.2 billion in dividends in the second quarter, about 13 percent higher than SPLY. This is because, among its core investments, Singapore Land reports its results on a semi-annual basis while BPI usually begins declaring its dividends in the second quarter of each year.

JG Summit posted higher consolidated revenues of ₱98.2 billion in the first quarter of 2025 from ₱96.6 billion in the SPLY. This performance was driven by the sustained leisure demand plus recovering domestic consumption.

JGS saw robust uptake for travel, malls, and hotel offerings as well as green shoots in consumption for its food and beverage products. These outweighed the expected decline in residential and petrochemical revenues compared to SPLY.

Omitting the results of its petrochemical unit, whose production was halted indefinitely beginning January of this year, JGS’ topline grew 10 percent YoY.

JG Summit Olefins Corporation saw a decline in its petrochemical sales as production stopped with the plant shutdown initiated in January 2025. Hence, total revenues fell 46 percent year-on-year to ₱7.6 billion, even with the 24 percent expansion in its fuels trading business providing cushion.

The plant shutdown alongside slightly positive polymer margins this year helped EBITDA and core losses to narrow by ₱209 million and ₱332 million but bottomline remained flat at a ₱3.3 billion loss due to non-recurring costs that were incurred to facilitate the shutdown.

As approved by the JG Summit board of directors, JGSOC will be on a prolonged shutdown for at least 2 years, as market challenges in the global petrochemical industry persist. Meanwhile, its liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) trading arm, Peak Fuel Corporation, will continue to operate.

Universal Robina Corporation recorded a seven percent revenue growth to ₱45.3 billion. Due to lower foreign exchange (FX) gains, net income slipped two percent to ₱4.1 billion. But core profits, which excludes the impact of FX adjustments, climbed five percent to ₱3.9 billion.

RLC’s EBITDA as well as core and net profits all increased by ₱0.2 billion to ₱6.3 billion and ₱3.5 billion, respectively.

Cebu Air saw a 20 percent rise in revenues to ₱30.4 billion but additional aircraft depreciation and financing costs drove core and net income down 60 percent and 79 percent YoY to ₱0.7 billion and ₱0.5 billion, respectively.

JGS reported a nine percent increase in its share in Meralco’s net income to ₱2.7 billion, driven by higher sales volumes from its distribution business plus improving contributions from its power generation segment.

PLDT also declared dividends of ₱47 per share, a one-peso increase vs SPLY. This translated to

₱1.1 billion in dividend receipts for JGS, up two percent YoY.