GT Capital Holdings Inc., the holding firm of tycoon George Ty, said its net income grew 21 percent from January to March this year to P3.7 billion, from last year’s P3.1 billion, but weak car sales pulled down its revenues.
Revenues fell 7 percent to P45.45 billion from last year’s P48.75 billion, on lower car sales, but the company earned higher equity in net income of associates Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co., AXA Philippines and Metro Pacific Investments Corp.
“The interim soft numbers for the auto sector during the first quarter resulted from the front-loading of orders late last year in anticipation of the new excise tax. We expect sales to normalize by the second half of the year,” GT Capital President Carmelo Maria Luza Bautista said.
Toyota Motor Philippines’s revenues fell 12 percent to P37.85 billion, from last year’s P42.84 billion. There was a 12-percent drop in wholesale volume to 33,877 units from last year’s P38,576 units.
The company still maintains its lead in overall market share at 36 percent, it said. Metrobank reported an unaudited consolidated net income of P5.9 billion for the first quarter, up 5 percent from last year’s figure on the back of sustained growth in the core business.
Metro Pacific, meanwhile, reported a 16-percent rise in consolidated core net income to P3.6 billion, from P3.1 billion last year, on the back of strong volume growth across the portfolio and the increased investment in the power industry last year.
GT Capital’s property investments, Federal Land Inc. and Property Company of Friends Inc., achieved an average reservation sales growth of 20 percent for the period. The two property companies together reported P4.3 billion in consolidated revenues for the period and a net income amounting to P423.8 million.
Insurer AXA Philippines’s consolidated net income grew by 45 percent year-on-year to P553 million. Sales in annualized premium equivalent for the life-insurance business grew 37 percent to P2 billion, from P1.5 billion last year.
Regular premium income increased by a noteworthy 28 percent year-on-year, while single premium income rose more than double.
Nonlife written premiums grew by a modest 9 percent over the same period last year.