LT Group Inc. (LTG), the holding company of most of the businesses of tycoon Lucio Tan, hit an attributable net income of P15.4 billion for the first half.
In a statement over the weekend, the company said the bottom line growth was a 313 percent jump from the P3.73 billion during the same period last year despite major business units posting lower profits.
The tobacco business accounted for the highest share at 50 percent or P7.74 billion of the total attributable income.
PNB income down
Meanwhile, the publicly-listed PNB posted a P11.15 billion net income under the pooling method from January to June.
It was 50 percent lower than its year-ago level of P22.2 billion, which included a P33.60 gain from transferring real estate assets into PNB Holdings Corporation.
The bank’s net interest income was P17.34 billion, 3 percent or P491 million higher than the reported P16.85 billion a year ago.
However, its net service fees and commission income were P2.38 billion, 3 percent or P69 million lower than last year’s P2.45 billion.
Tobacco volume up
Citing government data, the LTG Group noted that the tobacco industry’s volume was estimated at 26.9 billion sticks in the first half, 0.4 percent or 0.1 billion sticks higher than the same period.
Its tobacco business, PMFTC Inc., reported a net income of P7.77 billion for the first semester of 2022, P1.24 billion or 14 percent lower than the P9.01 billion reported last year. Volume was relatively flat.
The group said the lower profits can be attributed to the increase in excise taxes that PMFTC had to absorb as a price increase was only implemented in the end of March.
There was no price increase in 2021, and the previous one was in October 2020.
Under Republic Act 11346, there was a P5 per pack increase in excise taxes on January 1, 2021 per pack of 20 sticks, and another P5 per pack increase to P55 starting 1 January.