SM Investments Corp., the holding company of the Sy family, said Thursday net income climbed 13 percent in 2018 to P37.1 billion from P32.9 billion in 2017, driven by the sustained growth of its retail, banking and property businesses.
Consolidated revenues also rose 13 percent to P449.8 billion from P397.9 billion the previous year, the conglomerate said in a disclosure to the stock exchange.
Property accounted for 41 percent of total earnings, with banks comprising 38 percent and retail 21 percent.
“Our very good results in 2018 were driven by all three core businesses”•retail, banking and property”•each of which delivered strong revenue growth and also strong earnings growth,” SMIC president Frederic DyBuncio said.
“We remain optimistic about the economic environment and growth opportunities for the group in 2019,” he said.
The retail business under SM Retail Inc., which consists of food and non-food stores, reported a net income of P11.3 billion last year, up 12 percent from 2017, as revenues rose 12 percent to P335.6 billion from P299.2 billion.
SM Retail had a total of 2,328 outlets as of end-2018, including 63 The SM Stores, 1,383 specialty retail outlets, 56 SM Supermarkets, 53 SM Hypermarkets, 195 Savemore, 52 WalterMart and 526 Alfamart stores.
The group’s property business under SM Prime Holdings Inc. posted a consolidated net income of P32.2 billion, up 17 percent from a year earlier as consolidated revenues rose 14 percent to P104.1 billion. SM Prime’s positive performance was boosted by robust mall revenues and residential sales.
Mall revenues grew 11 percent to P59.3 billion while residential sales jumped 22 percent to P36.5 billion.
BDO Unibank Inc., the group’s banking unit, earned P32.7 billion in 2018, up 17 percent from a year ago as net interest income jumped 20 percent to P98.3 billion.
Total assets of SMIC grew 10 percent to surpass the P1-trillion mark for the first time and end at P1.06 trillion.
The conglomerate’s portfolio investments also include equities in Belle Corp., Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corp., community mall chain CityMall, 2Go Group, dormitory operator MyTown, bakeshop chain Goldilocks and business process outsourcing firm Net Group.