Posted on 08:53 PM, June 06, 2010 [ BusinessWorld Online ]
BY NEIL JEROME C. MORALES, Reporter
CONSUNJI-led DMCI Holdings, Inc. expects profits for the year to balloon by as much as half to P7 billion, the listed company’s top executive said.
Higher profits will be carried by across-the-board growth in earnings of all business units. The second quarter, meanwhile, is expected to continue the growth trend recorded in the first quarter, DMCI Holdings President Isidro A. Consunji told BusinessWorld in a recent interview.
“[Profits will reach] between P6 billion to P7 billion,” he said.
Mr. Consunji said growth in profits will come “from power, mining by Semirara [Mining Corp.] and water [distribution]. All our units [are expected to grow], even construction.”
The net income of the listed holding firm almost tripled last year to P4.683 billion on the back of huge earnings from mining, real estate, and water distribution.
The water business yielded a P1.651-billion profit last year, up from P81 million in 2008. This was due to higher billed volumes and increased tariff rates charged by west zone concessionaire Maynilad Water Services, Inc., DMCI Holdings’ partnership with Pangilinan-led Metro Pacific Investments Corp.
DMCI Homes, Inc. President Alfredo R. Austria said the wholly owned property firm is expected to post P1 billion in net income this year from about P900 million last year.
“It looks like we are going to hit it or exceed it,” Mr. Austria said, adding that the company targets selling P10.5 billion worth of housing units this year.
To date, the decade-old DMCI Homes, which specializes in mid-rise, low-density residential projects, has turned over more than 10,000 units to buyers.
Construction, mining
Meanwhile, DMCI Holding’s net income for the second quarter is projected to grow by nearly a tenth from P1.38 billion in the same period last year.
“It will be a little better than [the first quarter]. Net income may reach more than P1.5 billion for the second quarter,” Mr. Consunji said in Filipino.
In the first three months of the year, profits of DMCI Holdings jumped by 81% to P1.406 billion given huge earnings growth in construction and mining.
All business arms registered gains or went back into the black for the first three months of the year.
DMCI Holdings extracts and sells coal from Semirara Island in Antique. The publicly listed conglomerate is also into steel fabrication through Atlantic Gulf and Pacific Co. and power generation under DMCI Power Corp.
The Consunjis have a minority stake in the San Miguel Corp.-controlled Private Infrastructure Development Corp., the firm that will build the 88-kilometer Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Toll Expressway.
The P18-billion project is expected to cut travel time from Manila to Baguio by half. The tollway contractor expects to complete the project in 2014.
Shares in DMCI Holdings, which was incorporated in 1995, went up by P0.75 on Friday to close the trading week at P16.75 apiece, from P16.00 on Thursday.
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