Jollibee 3Q Profit Up 15%

Manila—(PHStocks)—Jollibee Foods Corp.  (PSE: JFC) reported a net income attributable to equity holders of the Parent Company of PhP1.17 billion for the third quarter, 15.1% higher than the amount generated in the same period last year. Operating income grew by 16.6%, driven by an 11.6% increase in revenues and by an improvement in operating margin to 6.4%. For the first nine months of the year, JFC’s net income attributable to equity holders of the Parent Company increased by 16.5% year-on-year.

System Wide Sales, a measure of all sales to consumers, both from company-owned stores and franchised stores grew by 12.2% in the third quarter over the same period in 2013, with the Philippine business growing by 13% and the foreign business by 9.6% (Southeast Asia and the Middle East, 22.3%; China, 8.4%; and the United States, 4.9%). The growth was driven by a 7% to 8% same store sales growth and a 5.7% growth in store network. Same store sales growth pertains to sales from restaurants that were already open for at least 15 months. It excludes sales growth from new store opening. For the first nine months of the year, JFC’s sales rose by 13.6% consisting of a 13.4% growth rate in the Philippines and 14.5% abroad.

The Jollibee Group had opened a total of 148 new stores in the first nine months of the year, of which 114 were in the Philippines and 34 were in foreign operations. Worldwide store network growth accelerated from 4.5% in September 2013 (versus September 2012) to 5.7% in September 2014.

For 2015, the Board of Directors approved in its meeting held on 12 November 2014 a capital expenditure budget of PhP9.1 billion, which is 42% higher than the estimated PhP6.3 billion spending this year. Of this amount, PhP6.7 billion will be for the Philippines; PhP1.7 billion for China; and the balance, for the United States, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. The 2015 capital expenditures will be mostly for the store openings in the Philippines and foreign operations, store renovations in the Philippines and abroad, investments in commissary construction and commissary capacity increase in the Philippines.

The Board also approved the declaration of a regular cash dividend of PhP0.89, which is 25.4% higher than the regular cash dividend paid in the same period last year. This will be paid on 18 December 2014 to stockholders of record as of 27 November 2014. This brings the company’s total regular cash dividends to PhP1.64 per share for this year, an increase of 20.6% from last year.