The country’s oldest conglomerate Ayala Corp. grew net profit in the first six months by 9 percent year-on-year to P15.1 billion, bolstered by its robust real estate and power generation businesses.

For the full year, the conglomerate hopes to post a “mid-teen” profit growth, Ayala chief finance officer Teodoro Limcaoco said in a press briefing on Friday. This suggests it would need a faster year-on-year growth in earnings in the second semester.

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Limcaoco added Ayala was on track with its medium-term goal of reaching P50 billion in annual profit by 2020. This would require a compounded annual growth rate of 15 percent.

Equity earnings amounted to P17.4 billion in the first semester, 6 percent higher from a year ago, driven by strong earnings contributions from Ayala Land and AC Energy, which grew 17 percent and 64 percent, respectively.

For the second quarter alone, Ayala recorded a net income of P8.1 billion, up by 2 percent from its year-ago level.

“We are pleased with the overall strong performance of our businesses. The active portfolio management, new business initiatives, and financial discipline we employed in recent years—supported by a healthy domestic economy—continue to bolster Ayala’s growth trajectory,” Ayala president and chief operating officer Fernando Zobel de Ayala said in a press statement.

Ayala Land grew net profit in the first six months by 18 percent year-on-year to P11.5 billion, fueled by the property development and commercial leasing businesses.

Continued investments to ramp up a digitization strategy coupled with lower securities trading gains, however, curbed Bank of the Philippine Islands’ net income in the first semester to P11.7 billion, 8 percent down year-on-year.

In the case of Globe Telecom, higher depreciation, interest expense and costs related to the acquisition of San Miguel’s telecom assets slowed down six-month net earnings by 10 percent year-on-year to P8.1 billion. Excluding costs related to the San Miguel deal, net earnings would be 4 percent lower.

For Manila Water, the steady performance of its Manila concession coupled with increasing contributions from domestic subsidiaries drove a 3-percent increase in net income to P3.2 billion.

AC Industrials registered a net income of P739 million in the first half, 3 percent down, as lower contributions from its vehicle retail business tempered gains from the robust performance of its electronics manufacturing arm Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc. (IMI). —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA

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