JG Summit Holdings, Inc., the listed holding company of the Gokongwei Group, said Wednesday its first-quarter net income attributable to equity holders more than doubled to P11 billion from P5 billion in the same period last year.
The positive first-quarter growth was fueled by higher results of its food, real estate and air transport businesses and P7.9 billion one-time gain after the merger of the Bank of the Philippine Islands and Robinsons Bank at the start of 2024.
The conglomerate’s first-quarter net income represented more than half of the group’s 2023 full-year results.
First-quarter consolidated revenues jumped 18 percent to P96.7 billion in the first quarter, primarily due to the higher plant utilization of the conglomerate’s petrochemical unit along with the steep upswing of its airline’s international operations.
“We kicked off 2024 with sustained improvements across our businesses, seeing robust sales volumes in our petrochemical and food businesses, as well as strong demand for air travel, leisure and hospitality services. Margins have been buoyed by a combination of volume growth, managed input costs, and operating leverage. We have also begun seeing green shoots in our petrochemicals arm as value realization has begun for its commercial and operational initiatives,” JG Summit president and chief executive officer Lance Gokongwei said
Gokongwi said the company would continue to work on growing its airline’s capacity to serve the gradual uptick in demand.
It will also drive volume-based growth in our food and beverage business, sustain the momentum of it property unit, and accelerate the transformation program of our petrochemicals arm, he said.
“We will also continue to support our ecosystem plays, which are on the path to attaining scale via customer acquisition and new product launches,” Gokongwei said.
JG Summit said it also expects to receive dividends amounting to P9.9 billion in the second quarter of the year. This represents an 8-percent increase from the same period last year as it anticipates to collect higher total dividends from its listed food and property subsidiaries in the coming quarters, offsetting the absence of PLDT’s 2023 special dividends.