PLDT, SMC, SMIC top list of most profitable listed companies
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 05/31/2009 3:00 PM
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The country's biggest conglomerates--Philippine Long Distance Company (PLDT), San Miguel Corporation (SMC), and SM Investments Corporation (SMIC)--led the list of top earners among the listed companies in 2008.
The three's combined profits of P68 billion already accounted for 34 percent of the 233 listed companies that submited their latest financial statements to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).
Rounding up the top 5 are PLDT's subsidiary, Pilipino Telephone Corp (Piltel), and Globe Telecom Inc. The top 5's combined profits accounted for 46 percent of the listed companies' total profits for 2008.
The telecommunications group in the top 5--PLDT, Piltel, and Globe--accounted for 29 percent of total profits. Of that, Hongkong-based First Pacific Holding's PLDT Group--PLDT and Piltel--accounted for 80 percent.
Below are the top 5's net profits for 2008:
PLDT - P34.64 billion
SMC - P19.35
SMIC - P14
Piltel-P11.35
Globe- P11.28
Finances and deals
Data collated from submissions of 233 companies out of the 246 listed in the PSE showed that total net profit for 2008 fell 29.4 percent to P198.91 billion. In 2007, listed firms showed combined profits of P281.54 billion.
Out of the 233 firms that reported their financial performance in 2008, 159 posted gains and 74 registered losses.
2008 was marked as the year when rich countries' financial system almost collapsed amid the uncovering of their toxic assets, triggering a domino effect of drastic economic slowdown in countries far and wide, an almost a halt in global trade, and credit freeze. It followed a year of record economic--and to some firms, financial--performance for the Philippines in 2007, when the country posted a 7.1 percent growth, the highest in 3 decades.
PLDT's net income in 2008 slipped 3.8 percent lower than the year before due to foreign exchange losses. It revalued its foreign-denominated liabilities. Net losses registered by PLDT’s information communications and technology (ICT) business, as a result of an increase in ICT-related expenses and lower income tax benefits, also dragged PLDT’s net income for the year.
PLDT and sister company, Metro Pacific Investment Corp, have been active in the acquisition game in the past years. In several deals, it was up against SMC, led by politically connected Danding Cojuanco Jr. and the firm's president and chief executive officer Ramon Ang.
SMC topped the list of companies with the highest nominal gain in net income at P10.72 billion due to non-recurring gains from the sale of investments in KSA Realty Corporation and its 35 percent stake in the domestic and regional packaging businesses. SMC’s earnings were also boosted by the income from the initial public offering of San Miguel Brewery, Inc. (SMB) and gains from the sale of its Quezon City property.
Sy-led SM Investment Corporation has been relatively quiet in the big-ticket mergers and acquisition game after its banking arm, Banco de Oro, absorbed giant Equitable PCI Bank several years ago. Its cash-cow, the mall operations, have been on the on-track with expansion plans despite fears that remittance-led consumption will be one of the worst hit as the global economic slowdown threaten employment of money-sending Filipinos abroad. Its nationwide mall network has recently added its 100th mall.
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