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Ramon Ang’s Petron Takes Pain Amid War-Time Sales Boom

Petron Corp. sold more fuel at higher prices in the first quarter. The trouble was that every peso of sales bought shareholders less profit. The Philippines’ largest oil company reported a 27% jump in first-quarter revenue to ₱246.0 billion , boosted by higher sales volume and surging fuel prices after the Israel-U.S.-Iran conflict roiled global oil markets. Sales volume rose 13% to 34.62 million barrels , helped by stronger trading transactions, resilient retail demand and LPG growth. But the top-line strength masked a sharp deterioration underneath: gross profit fell 22% to ₱10.52 billion , operating income dropped 36% to ₱6.06 billion , and consolidated net income slumped 56% to ₱1.78 billion . The result was a quarter that looked big in nominal terms but thin in economic substance. Petron sold more and sold at higher prices, yet earned materially less per peso of sales. Its gross margin narrowed to 4.3% from 6.9% a year earlier , a decline of about 266 basis points , as cost o...

GMA Network’s Election-Ad Hangover Exposes Pressure on Broadcast Model

GMA Network Inc.’s first-quarter results delivered a blunt reminder of how dependent Philippine free-to-air broadcasters remain on advertising cycles: when political placements disappear, earnings can fall much faster than sales. The Quezon City-based media company posted ₱3.36 billion in revenue for the three months ended March 31, 2026 , down 28% from ₱4.68 billion a year earlier, as advertising revenue dropped 31% to ₱2.98 billion . Management attributed the decline mainly to the absence of the significant election-related placements that boosted the comparable quarter in 2025. The fall in revenue rippled sharply through the income statement. EBITDA slid 62% to ₱632 million , while net income plunged 87% to ₱102 million from ₱801 million a year earlier. The results show the downside of operating leverage in a business where production costs, personnel expenses, programming commitments, and broadcast infrastructure do not fall as quickly as advertising sales. GMA did...

Sy Family’s Retail Fortress Cushions SM Prime From Housing Slowdown

SM Prime Holdings Inc.’s first-quarter results showed a company leaning harder on its core mall-and-rental machine as its residential business lost momentum, underscoring a widening split inside one of the Philippines’ largest property developers. The Sy-led property giant reported ₱33.28 billion in consolidated revenue for the first quarter of 2026 , up about 2% from a year earlier, as stronger rental income and higher ancillary revenues offset a steep decline in residential real estate sales. Net income attributable to the parent was broadly flat at ₱11.66 billion , compared with ₱11.65 billion a year earlier. The standout was rent. SM Prime’s rental revenue climbed to ₱21.61 billion , an increase of about 8% year-on-year , supported by its nationwide mall network and recurring-income assets. The company said rental revenue was mostly generated by malls, with offices, hotels and convention centers contributing the balance. That strength helped absorb a material slowdown ...

Lucio Tan’s LTG Still Leans on Tobacco Cash Machine as Volumes Start to Squeeze

Lucio Tan’s LT Group Inc. entered 2026 with a familiar earnings formula: banking supplied the largest profit share, but tobacco remained the quiet cash machine underpinning the conglomerate’s dividend appeal. LTG’s first-quarter net income attributable to shareholders rose 3.5% to ₱7.49 billion , from ₱7.24 billion a year earlier, even as consolidated revenue slipped 1.2% to ₱30.78 billion . The headline result looked steady. Underneath it, however, the quarter showed a more nuanced story: LTG’s tobacco arm remained highly profitable, but the engine is beginning to show volume pressure. Fortune Tobacco Corp., LTG’s tobacco vehicle, posted ₱2.86 billion in net income in the first quarter, up 1.9% from ₱2.81 billion a year earlier. That made tobacco LTG’s second-biggest earnings contributor after Philippine National Bank, accounting for roughly 38% of attributable income based on management’s segment disclosures. The catch is that the profit increase did not come from stronger ...

Gokongwei REIT Sidesteps the Dilution Trap After Mall Injection

RL Commercial REIT Inc., the Gokongwei group’s property trust, entered 2026 with a bigger share base — but also enough new mall income to keep both earnings per share and dividends per share moving higher. RL Commercial REIT Inc. is showing early signs that its latest asset-for-share expansion did what REIT investors want such deals to do: add income faster than it adds shares. The company, known by its ticker RCR , reported first-quarter net income of ₱2.34 billion , up 41% from ₱1.66 billion a year earlier, as revenues jumped following the infusion of nine malls in the third quarter of 2025. Total revenue rose 51% to ₱3.39 billion , driven mainly by the added mall assets and steady portfolio occupancy, according to RCR’s first-quarter 2026 filing. That mattered because the same mall transaction also expanded RCR’s share count. In August 2025, RCR and sponsor Robinsons Land Corp. executed a property-for-share swap involving nine mall assets with 324,107.75 square meter...

Tony Tan Caktiong’s Global Bet Is Feeding Jollibee Sales — and Eating Into Profit

Jollibee Foods Corp.’s global expansion is doing exactly what investors once hoped it would do: make the Philippine fast-food giant less dependent on its home market and turn it into a broader international restaurant platform. But in the first quarter of 2026, that same overseas footprint exposed a harder truth — international scale is not yet translating into international earnings power. The company’s international business accounted for 42.4% of global revenues and 43.2% of gross profit in Q1 2026, showing that overseas operations are now a major part of JFC’s sales engine. Yet the same international segment contributed only 13.4% of global operating income and -52.0% of global net income after tax , or NIAT. In plain terms, JFC’s foreign operations are large and growing, but they still dragged down bottom-line profits during the quarter. The contrast is stark. JFC’s Philippine business contributed 86.6% of operating income and 152.0% of global NIAT , meaning the domestic...

Gokongwei’s RLC Has Cash Flow, Retained Earnings to Support Higher Payout

Robinsons Land Corp. has moved from having a case for a dividend hike to actually delivering one. The Gokongwei-led property developer declared a regular cash dividend of ₱1.00 per share on May 11, 2026 , payable on June 8, 2026 , to shareholders of record as of May 26, 2026 . The dividend will be paid out of unappropriated retained earnings as of Dec. 31, 2025 , according to the company’s disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange. The payout marks a sharp step-up from RLC’s previous ₱0.75 per-share dividend , representing a 33% increase . Based on RLC’s 4.805 billion outstanding common shares , the new dividend implies a cash distribution of about ₱4.81 billion . Against 2025 earnings per share of ₱2.80 , the dividend translates to a payout ratio of roughly 36% , still moderate for a company with a growing recurring-income base. The higher payout follows a year in which RLC’s earnings quality improved, its balance sheet strengthened and its retained earnings provided a ...