MANILA, Philippines – Foreign exchange losses continued to weigh down the income of diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) even as it posted higher revenues in the first quarter.
In a statement, SMC said its net income was nearly halved to P2.2 billion in January to March compared with P4.2 billion last year.
“Without the foreign exchange losses, SMC’s net income was at P4 billion, 23 percent higher than the comparable income for the same period last year,” the conglomerate pointed out.
SMC said the strength of the dollar against the peso resulted in a P1.8-billion net loss in the first quarter, reversing the P1-billion foreign exchange gain in the same period last year. But the appreciation of the peso to 43.65 as of May 9 effectively eliminated the foreign exchange losses, it added.
Revenues rose almost a tenth to P195 billion in the first quarter, driven by energy units — Petron Corp. and SMC Global Power Holdings Corp. that posted double-digit improvement even as core businesses San Miguel Brewery Inc. (SMB), San Miguel Pure Foods Co. Inc. (SMPF) and San Miguel Yamamura Packaging Corp. reported better quarter-on-quarter results while liquor unit Ginebra San Miguel Inc. made a solid recovery.
The strong performance of Ginebra, SMPF and the power business allowed SMC to record P15.5 billion in consolidated operating income, SMC said.
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For its part, SMB’s consolidated sales volume reached 46.6 million cases, down year-on-year due to a trade build-up prior to the price increase implemented in February 2013 to cover increase in excise taxes.
However, volumes picked up by February and March this year, improving 11 percent and seven percent, respectively, allowing SMB to match year-ago sales revenues at P17.6 billion and post an operating income of P4.7 billion, SMC said.
Ginebra’s revenues climbed 21 percent to P3.6 billion due to strong sales while food unit SMPF said its sales revenue rose five percent to P24.2 billion.
SMC’s packaging arm said its revenues inched up one percent to P5.6 billion, driven by the paper segment that posted high volume sales.
For new businesses, consolidated revenues of SMC Global Power Holdings Corp. hit P20 billion, up 14 percent due to higher bilateral prices and volume sales improvement.
