San Miguel 1H revenues gain on strong consumer spending

San Miguel Corp. (SMC), the country's largest food and beverage conglomerate, said on Thursday that its consolidated sales revenues during the first half of the year climbed 8 percent to P91.9 billion compared to the same period last year. "[SMC] drew strength from Ginebra San Miguel and San Miguel Brewery Inc. (SMB) even as most of the conglomerate's businesses fared equally well versus last year's results," the conglomerate said. Strong first-half consumer spending from election and summer-related activities pushed SMB's revenues to P27.7 billion, up by 11 percent. Equity in earnings of affiliates increased by 22 percent to P1.09 billion, propelled by Manila Electric Co.'s (Meralco) contribution to SMC's earnings. SMC holds a 27-percent interest in Meralco. The company's power businesses — Sual, Limay and San Roque power plants — also posted revenues of P24.1 billion for the first half in review, contributing P699 million to the company's consolidated net income. Meanwhile, San Miguel Food Group also delivered higher consolidated revenues of P38 billion for the first semester, following favorable performance from poultry, feeds, dairy, coffee, etc. SMC's packaging unit, San Miguel Yamamura Packaging, booked consolidated revenues of P11.5 billion, up 13 percent from last year due to increase in glass volumes, strong performance from Malaysia, new contracts in Australia, and growing export volumes. Despite the the company's gains, SMC's first-half profit dipped by 89 percent from its level a year ago after it booked extraordinary gains from the sale of a stake in SMB. SMC said its net income in the first six months of the year fell to P6.28 billion from P55.6 billion in the same period a year ago. Last year, the company had a one-time gain from the sale of a stake in SMB to Japanese brewer Kirin Holdings. —JE/OMG, GMANews.TV