Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc (RRHI) said net income attributable to equity holders of the parent company declined by 41.4 percent in the first nine months of the year to P2.58 billion from P4.4 billion recorded in the same period last year.
RRHI said in a disclosure to the stock exchange Thursday the decline was due to equitized losses from minority start-up investments which continue to ramp up, the derecognition of Robinsons Bank’s net income under equitized earnings following the merger with the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) and interest expense from the acquisition financing of the BPI shares that were purchased earlier this year.
Nine-month core net income, however, climbed 4 percent to P3.78 billion as net sales increased 8.7 percent to P138.2 billion on 5-percent growth in same-store sales and store expansion initiatives.
RRHI said net sales and core net earnings posted growth despite the impact of inflation on consumption and a challenging base last year, which benefitted from economic reopening and election-related spending.
RRHI said it remained positive on the long-term potential of the domestic retail industry, despite near-term macroeconomic challenges, particularly the impact of inflation on consumer sentiment.
“We will continue to invest with a long-term view and in a sustainable manner – core strategies that we firmly believe will translate to greater stakeholder value,” said RRHI president and chief executive Robina Gokongwei-Pe said.
The group’s supermarkets and drugstores were the main revenue growth drivers during the period as sales of these two segments accounted for almost 75 percent of RRHI’s revenues for the period.
The department store segment also delivered double-digit topline growth in the first nine months due to back-to-school and continued out-of-home activities.
RRHI had a total of 2,368 stores comprising of 341 supermarkets, 1,033 drugstores, 50 department stores, 230 DIY stores, 416 convenience stores and 298 specialty stores as of end-September. It also had more than 2,000 franchised stores of TGP.
