the Outsider - PSE Points to Ponder

  Metrobank’s interest engine accelerated in the first half of 2026. BDO, however, paired loan growth with expanding deposits, steadier noninterest revenue and tighter cost control. MANILA — The first-half results of the Philippines’ two largest listed banks offered an instructive contrast in how lenders can produce nearly identical profit growth from very different operating performances. Metropolitan Bank & Trust Company, or Metrobank, reported the faster expansion in its core interest-earning business. Its net interest income rose 12.8 percent from a year earlier, outpacing the 10.6 percent increase reported by BDO Unibank. But BDO’s overall result was more balanced. It grew loans and deposits together, increased noninterest income and held expense growth below the rate of revenue expansion. Metrobank, by contrast, contended with shrinking deposits, a sharp decline in trading-related revenue and faster growth in operating costs. The result was an unusual near tie at the bot...

  The casino’s land-based recovery powered most of Belle Corporation’s revenue growth in the first half of 2026, while a shrinking debt load helped convert that momentum into faster profit growth. For several years, Belle Corporation’s sprawling casino investment in Manila offered investors something dependable but not necessarily dynamic: a large property generating regular rent from its operator, even as the gambling business itself worked through a difficult recovery. In the first half of 2026, the more volatile side of that arrangement began to reassert itself. Belle’s share of gaming revenue from City of Dreams Manila rose to 952.9 million pesos, an increase of 23 percent from 772.3 million pesos a year earlier. Growth became considerably stronger in the second quarter, when gaming revenue share climbed 37.5 percent from the same period in 2025. That acceleration made the land-based casino the central story behind Belle’s improved results. Consolidated revenue increased 10 per...

The real estate investment trust’s revenue grew fast enough to absorb nearly one billion new shares issued for Megaworld properties, but a sharp rise in receivables weakened cash conversion. MREIT entered 2026 with a familiar promise for investors in real estate investment trusts: Get bigger without leaving existing shareholders behind. For the first six months of the year, it largely delivered on the first part. Revenue rose 26.3 percent to ₱3.41 billion, while net income climbed 31.1 percent to ₱2.53 billion. The gains followed the addition of nine office buildings in McKinley Hill, Taguig, transferred by MREIT’s parent company, Megaworld, in exchange for nearly one billion new shares. The transaction increased MREIT’s outstanding shares by 26.8 percent. Revenue grew at almost precisely the same rate, allowing the company to avoid meaningful earnings dilution. Basic earnings per share rose to ₱0.54 from ₱0.52, a gain of 3.8 percent, rather than declining under the weight of the new s...

After six years of rapid payout growth, the Philippine utility’s earnings-based dividend framework faces a consequential question: Who should bear the cost of electricity that never reaches the meter? For much of this decade, Manila Electric Company has offered shareholders something increasingly scarce: a dividend that has not merely held steady but climbed with remarkable consistency. From 2020 through 2026, Meralco’s cash distributions increased from ₱9.984 to ₱28.430 per share , based on dividends paid within each calendar year. That works out to compound annual growth of roughly 19 percent —an unusually strong record for a mature electric utility, a category typically prized for stability rather than rapid expansion. The progression has been almost uninterrupted. Annual dividends rose to ₱12.881 per share in 2021, ₱16.032 in 2022, ₱19.548 in 2023, ₱21.530 in 2024, and ₱25.064 in 2025. The two payments scheduled for 2026—₱16.672 in April and ₱11.758 in September—bring the calendar-...

  The Philippine banking giant’s core interest earnings increased in the first half of 2026. Much of that additional value, however, flowed to employees, service providers and the government rather than landing on the bottom line. At first glance, BDO Unibank’s first-half results appeared uneventful. The country’s largest bank reported ₱40.85 billion in net profit for the six months ended June 30, barely changed from ₱40.76 billion a year earlier. Earnings attributable to shareholders of the parent bank increased just 0.3 percent, while basic earnings per share edged up by one cent, to ₱7.56.  But beneath that nearly static bottom line, a more dynamic redistribution of economic value was taking place. BDO’s net interest income—the difference between what it earned from loans and investments and what it paid to depositors and other creditors—rose 10.6 percent, to ₱108.51 billion. Even after the bank set aside substantially more money for possible credit losses, net interest inc...

The Philippine developer raised its regular payout but omitted last year’s special dividend, reducing the total cash return to shareholders as debt and financing costs climb. Century Properties Group is returning more of its annual profit to shareholders through its regular dividend this year. But investors will receive less cash overall. The property developer declared a regular dividend of ₱0.047837 a share on July 17, an increase of nearly 14 percent from last year’s regular payment. Missing from the announcement, however, was the special dividend that supplemented the company’s payout in 2025. Unless the board declares one later this year, the omission will reduce the company’s total common dividend by about 9 percent , even as Century Properties presents the new distribution as evidence of financial resilience.  Last year, Century Properties paid a regular dividend of ₱0.042114 a share and a special dividend of ₱0.010529 , for a combined distribution of ₱0.052643 a share . T...

Commercial and service growth helped steady revenue, but weaker appliance volumes, rising inventories and slower collections squeezed margins and cash flow. Concepcion Industrial Corp. entered 2026 carrying more goods into a market that was buying fewer. The Philippine appliance and building-systems company reported that sales of goods fell 5% to ₱8.93 billion in the first half, as softer demand for residential air conditioners and selected refrigeration products weighed on its Consumer business. Yet CIC’s inventory climbed nearly 29% from the end of December to ₱4.10 billion , leaving more of the company’s cash tied up in products, components and shipments that had yet to reach customers.  That divergence—lower merchandise sales alongside higher inventory—was one part of a broader squeeze on CIC. Its Commercial and service operations continued to grow, helping limit the decline in consolidated revenue to 2%. But those activities generally took longer to bill and collect than reta...