By MADELAINE ESTRADA
SM Investments Corp., yesterday said it is
confident that it will hit its P14 billion net income target
this year or a 13 percent growth from last year since it
believes consumers will be willing to spend more.
"Consumer spending will be better during the
second half given that oil prices have gone down and the peso
weakened. These things are favorable to families of overseas
Filipino workers," said Harley Sy, SM president.
Sy added that the company’s confidence in
meeting this year’s net income "stems from the strong
performance of its retail stores, malls, and property business."
For the first six months of the year, SMIC
posted a P6.5 billion income or a 14 percent growth, compared
with P5.73 last year.
Consolidated revenue improved to P65.6
billion from P55.9 billion or a 17 percent growth. Retail sales
also went up by 21 percent to P54.9 billion from the P45.4
billion record last year.
Retail merchandising, which includes
hypermarkets and supermarkets, surged to by 14 percent to P1.6
billion from P1.4 billion. Retail merchandising accounted for
the 32 percent of the company’s income for the first semester.
Rental revenues from malls and other properties increased to
P6.4 billion from P5.4 billion last year.
Net income of commercial centers, under SM
Prime Holdings Inc, marked a 4 percent increase at P7.2 billion
during the first half of this year from P6.8 billion during the
same period of last year.
Meanwhile, SM Land Inc., SM’s property
subsidiary, completed the P650 million expansion of Taal Vista
Hotel. The expansion allowed for 130 additional rooms from its
current 130 hotel rooms. A 1,000 seating-capacity grand ballroom
was also added.
SM Land Inc. also tallied a P2.29 billion net
income or a 27 percent growth from a record of P1.8 billion
during the previous year.
SM Investments Corporation is confident it
will meet its net income target this year of Php14 billion for a
growth of about 13% over that of 2007.
For the rest of the year, SM will still open
two department stores, two hypermarkets and two malls in
Rosales, and Baliuag.
