Philippines: San Miguel Corp., Southeast Asia's largest food and drinks group, is set to report higher quarterly profits on Thursday, boosted by lively sales of beer and snacks throughout a long election campaign, Reuters posted on August 2. The Philippines' largest company, with a market value of $3.6 billion, is expected to post April-June net profit of between 2 billion and 2.6 billion pesos ($36-$47 million), up from 1.71 billion a year earlier, analysts said.

San Miguel, 15 % owned by Japan's number two beer maker Kirin Brewery Co. Ltd., sells 9 of every 10 bottles of beer in the Philippines and dominates the domestic soft drink, liquor and food sectors.

Analysts said the company was a major winner from spending related to the May 10 national elections. Beer and hard liquor make up around a third of group revenue. "Given initial results from subsidiaries, it seems positive as the first half covered the elections, and pre- and post-election spending, particularly victory celebrations, benefited San Miguel," said Alfred Dy, analyst at Philippine Equity Partners.

Company president Ramon Ang has said net profit would rise 30 % in the first half from 925 million pesos a year ago. "In terms of revenues, we are tracking 16 % better than last year. Everything is OK across the board, including the soft drink business which has already recovered," Ang said on June 28.

Consolidated net income jumped 32 percent to 3.29 billion pesos in January-May on higher volume beer sales and fixed cost controls at its soft drink arm, Coca-Cola Beverage Group. "Profit looks pretty good, chicken prices are stable, domestic beer is up, hard liquor may be flat. The themes in the first quarter may be maintained," said Martin Enrile, analyst at ATR Kim Eng Securities Inc.

San Miguel is expected to earn net profit of 8.66 billion pesos this year compared with last year's 7.37 billion, according to Reuters Estimates. San Miguel's B shares, open to all investors, rose 3.5 percent in the second quarter while its A shares, which are open only to locals, edged up 1.7 percent against a 10.89 percent jump in the main index in the same period. On Monday, August 2, the B shares were unchanged at 71 pesos while the A shares slid 0.86 percent to 57.50 pesos.

04 August, 2004