By James A. Loyola

Filinvest Development Corporation (FDC), the flagship of the Gotianun group, posted a 46 percent jump in net income to P10.5 billion in the first nine months of 2018.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the firm said this was driven by a 12 percent growth in consolidated revenues to P54.2 billion.

“Our investments in power, property and in the bank infrastructure is now being reflected in the healthy increase of FDC’s net income,” said FDC President and CEO L. Josephine Gotianun-Yap.

She added that, “while we are always managing risk in our subsidiaries, adding investments in power and infrastructure further allow us a more balanced portfolio with the defensive industries recompensing the business segments that are more exposed to the ups and downs of the economic cycle.”

The lion’s share of revenues were contributed by the property business (43 percent), which includes the real estate business and hotel business, together with banking and financial services (40 percent). The balance was contributed by power (13 percent) and sugar (4 percent) operations.

Property subsidiaries led the conglomerate’s growth. Revenues surged by 128 percent at Filinvest Alabang, Inc., driven mainly by commercial lot sales while the top line grew 25 percent in the hospitality segment, as occupancy rates increased across all hotels.

Higher hospitality revenues were the result of improved occupancy rates across all hotel properties as well as increased revenues from Mimosa Golf Clark.

Meanwhile, total revenues at listed subsidiary Filinvest Land, Inc. (FLI) rose 10 percent driven by growth in rental revenues.

Power subsidiary FDC Utilities, Inc. (FDCUI) continued to be a solid contributor to the group’s results as sales from its Misamis Oriental power plant and its retail electricity operations grew 25 percent in the first nine months of 2018. FDCUI contributed P6.3 billion in revenues.

Banking subsidiary EastWest Bank registered a net income of P3.2 billion in the first 9 months of the year, 13 percent lower than the same period last year mainly due to the lower contribution from wholly-owned subsidiary EastWest Rural Bank (EWRB).