Core profits surged 99 percent to P18.1 billion while reported net income, which includes non-core items like foreign exchange losses, rose by 43 percent to P14.8 billion, the corporate giant said in a stock exchange filing on Monday.
Revenues grew by 15 percent in the first half of 2024, reaching P187.8 billion during the first six months of the year.
Management’s view
“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,” said JG Summit president and CEO Lance Gokongwei.
“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,” Gokongwei said.
Consumer-focused conglomerate
JG Summit owns Cebu Pacific, Robinsons Land Corp., Universal Robina Corp., and JG Summit Olefins. It is also a major shareholder in PLDT Inc., Manila Electric Co., Singapore Land, and more recently, Bank of the Philippine Islands.
Following the merger of BPI and Robinsons Bank, JG Summit received its first cash dividends from BPI, totaling P373 million at P1.98 per share.
Tailwind in the second half?
“Coupled with our initiatives to drive productivity and better operating leverage, we have now seen improvements in margins,” Gokongwei said.
“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,” he added.