RHI Q1 Revenues Jump 39% to PhP2B

Integrated sugar and ethanol producer Roxas Holdings Inc. (RHI, PSE: ROX) has announced its unaudited financial and operating results for the first quarter of Crop Year 2018. The Group’s consolidated revenues for the quarter climbed 39% to PhP2.07 billion from the PhP1.49 billion recorded for the same period in Q1 2017 driven by increased volume of sugar sold.

The volume of raw sugar sold rose 189% to 786,173 LKg from 272,374 LKg previously, while the volume of refined sugar sold increased by 23% to 431,014 LKg for the period from 223,777 LKg in Q1 2017.

RHI Chairman Pedro E. Roxas said that while the first quarter is usually a slow period, revenues from sugar operations rose significantly for the period to PhP1.8 billion from PhP904 million due to the sale of inventory from the previous crop year. Likewise, RHI’s gross profit for the first three months climbed 35% to PhP144 million from PhP107 million.

President and CEO Hubert D. Tubio said that the Group’s gross profit increased due to higher revenues and improvements realized from the significant investments made in the plants in prior years.

“We are seeing improvements in efficiencies, which resulted to higher production volumes at improved levels of production cost,” he said.

Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer Celso T. Dimarucut said that RHI’s Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) amounted to PhP191 million for the period, up 4% from the reported PhP183 million for the same period in 2017.

“While the Group’s interest expense for the period rose to PhP122 million in Q1 2018 from the PhP98 million in the previous year, carryover inventory sold during Q1 2018 reduced debt level by PhP527 million,” he added.

The Group trimmed its net loss for the first quarter by 2% to PhP110 million from PhP112 million in Q1 2017.