Conglomerate SM Investments Corp. said Friday net income fell 48 percent in 2020 to P23.4 billion from P44.6 billion in 2019 as core banking, real estate and retail businesses took a big hit from the pandemic.
Consolidated revenues also declined by 21 percent last year to P394.2 billion from P502 billion in 2019. The banking and property businesses accounted for 55 percent and 33 percent of net income, while retail contributed 12 percent.
“Our businesses continued to build momentum through the end of 2020 as they addressed the changed behaviors and needs of our customers. Our banks, food retailing and residential property all performed well, while our malls and non-food retail operations showed steady improvements as conditions allowed. We continue to innovate and focus on safety and are cautiously optimistic about the year ahead,” said SM Investments president Frederic DyBuncio.
SM Retail Inc., which consists of food, non-food and specialty stores, posted a 19-percent decline in sales to P296.8 billion from P366.8 billion in 2019. Net income was also lower by 67 percent to P4.1 billion.
SM Retail opened two department stores in Butuan and Zamboanga to end 202 with 66 stores with total gross selling area of 816,958 square meters. It also added 287 supermarkets stores under various formats. SM Retail had a total of 3,019 outlets across the country as of end-December.
Property unit SM Prime Holdings Inc. recorded net income of P18 billion in 2020, down 53 percent from a year ago as revenues declined 30.7 percent from P118.3 billion in 2019.
Mall revenues dropped 59 percent to P48.4 billion, while residential revenues rose 6 percent to P46.5 billion.
The conglomerate’s banking units registered mixed results. BDO Unibank Inc. posted a net income of P28.2 billion last year, down 36 percent year-on-year on pre-emptive provisions of P30.2 billion set aside against potential delinquencies from the pandemic.
China Banking Corp. reported net income of P12.1 billion, up 20 percent from 2019.
SMIC raised P10 billion from issuance of fixed rate bonds, the first issuance out of the P30 billion debt program under a shelf registration of three years.
