JG Summit posts 213% growth in Q1 net income

Gokongwei-led conglomerate JG Summit Holdings Inc. on Wednesday reported a 213% increase in its first-quarter core net income, which it attributed to the strong performance of its food, real estate, and air transport businesses.

In a regulatory filing, JG Summit said its core net income rose to P12.6 billion, as its consolidated revenues grew by 18% to P96.7 billion after all its subsidiaries showed continued topline expansion.

The food segment Universal Robina Corp. (URC) saw a 21% increase in its net income to P4.1 billion, as revenues climbed 7% to P42.6 billion, coupled with higher foreign exchange gains and the absence of an impairment loss.

JG Summit’s real estate unit Robinsons Land Corp. reported a 22% increase in its core profit to P3.3 billion, as its revenues jumped 18% to P10.5 billion during the quarter, with occupancy rates at 93% for malls, and 84% for offices.

Its air transport business Cebu Air Inc. — which operated budget carrier Cebu Pacific — recorded a 54% increase in its core net income to P1.8 billion, with revenues up to P25.3 billion after following 5.5 million passengers in the first quarter.

“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 its commercial and operational initiatives,” JG Summit president and chief executive officer Lance Gokongwei said.

The petrochemicals unit JG Summit Olefins Corp. posted a 65% growth in its sales volumes across all segments, following the planned shutdown in February and March of last year, along with the higher utilization rates in the first quarter of 2024.

This translated to a 62% increase in its revenues to P14.1 billion, and a net loss of P3.3 billion due to downward pressure from higher interest expenses, the depreciation on its new facilities, and foreign exchange losses.

“Looking ahead, we continue to work on growing our airline’s capacity to serve the gradual uptick in demand, driving volume-based growth in our food and beverage business, sustaining the momentum in our property unit, and accelerating the transformation program of our petrochemicals arm,” Gokongwei 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,” he added.—AOL, GMA Integrated News