DBP says net income jumped 17% to P1.23b in first quarter, vows to sustain growth trajectory

STATE-OWNED Development Bank of the Philippines’ net income jumped 17 percent to P1.23 billion in the first three months from P1.05 billion in the same period last year, a top executive said Friday.

DBP president and chief executive Michael de Jesus said higher interest income from expanded lending activities to critical sectors of the economy as a result of increased economic activity fueled the double-digit growth in its bottomline.

“DBP’s resurgent financial perfor- mance in 2023 is an attestation of its stability as a government financial institution,” de Jesus said. “We shall continue to build on this growth trajectory and carry on our mandate of being a catalyst of growth in areas where economic activities are limited and most needed,” he said.

DBP is the eighth largest bank in the country in terms of assets and remains a relevant and reliable partner of the national government in serving the financing needs of strategic and critical economic sectors, particularly infrastructure and logistics, micro, small and medium enterprises, social services and the environment.

De Jesus said DBP maintained its strong fiscal position, registering a 50-percent increase from its first-quarter net income target of P820 million with gross loan portfolio reaching P547 billion, up by 2 percent from P539 billion recorded in the same period in 2022. He said that as of end-March this year, loans for infrastructure and logis- tics totaled P285.235 billion, while the outstanding portfolio for social infrastructure and community development amounted to P107.842 billion.

“Bulk of our releases or about 55.2 percent of the bank’s loan portfolio were released to bankroll infrastructure development initiatives in support of the national government’s ‘Build Better More’ program, majority of which are located in the National Capital Region, Central Visayas, Davao and Central Luzon,” de Jesus said.

MRSGI said in a disclosure to the stock exchange first-quarter profit reached P60 million, up from P33.3 million in the same period last year.

Revenues, however, dipped 2.3 percent to P8.3 billion from P8.5 billion in the first quarter of 2022 as store sales also went down by 4.6 percent.

“The decrease was due to bulk wholesale transactions in 2022 that had beefed up first-quarter sales last year,” MRSGI said.

It said that excluding these bulk transactions, sales for the first quarter this year posted a double-digit increase of 12 percent.

Supermarket business accounted for 55 percent of revenues, followed by hypermarket at 23 percent and department store at 22 percent.

The company was operating 60 stores as of end-March 2023, including 39 in the Visayas, 11 in Luzon and 10 in the National Capital Region.

MRSGI’s blended gross margin improved by 290 basis points to 21.9 percent in the first quarter from 19 percent a year ago. This was attributable to the higher share to business of general merchandise that generates better margins than food retail.

The company said it continued to implement efficiency initiatives even as operating expenses increased 13.8 percent amid higher rent and utilities expenses and the additional stores that opened in April last year.

By Alena Mae S. Flores

FIRST Gen Corp. of the Lopez Group said Friday subsidiary Energy Development Corp. will no longer develop geothermal activities in Peru over political and market uncertainties.

First Gen said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange the board of directors and stockholders of Energy Development Corporation Peru S.A.C., a subsidiary of EDC, “decided to no longer pursue exploration and development activities in Peru due to political and market factors.”

EDC incorporated the Peru subsidiary on July 17, 2012 in Lima, Peru as a 70-percent owned subsidiary of EDC Geotermica S.A.C. (Peru).

Its main purpose is to generate, transmit and/or distribute energy derived from any and all forms, types and kinds of energy sources for lighting and power purposes and wholeselling the electric power to power corporations, public electric utilities and electric cooperatives. Energy Development Corporation Peru S.A.C. on Jan. 3, 2014 became a 100-percent indirectly owned subsidiary by the parent company through the acquisition of Hot Rock Entities. EDC, the country’s biggest geothermal company, has been developing geothermal projects in Peru, Indonesia, Taiwan and Chile as part of its expansion projects.

EDC earlier said that although the COVID situation and the accompanying travel restrictions had caused some delays in its activities, particularly in Indonesia and Taiwan, the company remained keen on those markets.