Sugar miller Roxas Holdings Inc. widened its net loss to P109 million in the company’s first quarter ending December 2018 from P90 million year-on-year on lower sugar prices.
RHI, however, said in a disclosure to the stock exchange it expects the company to recover in the next two quarters.
RHI chairman Pedro Roxas said due to the cyclical nature of the business, the group’s first quarter performance was historically slow as off-season repair and maintenance activities in the alcohol plants and the sugar refinery were done. Only the sugar mill in Negros Occidental started operations in September.
“We expect operations to start picking up in the next two quarters,” Roxas said.
“We inaugurated last November 2018 the two anaerobic digesters at San Carlos Bioenergy Inc. We anticipate to see the full benefits from these facilities in the succeeding quarters,” he added.
RHI president and chief executive Hubert Tubio said the company’s sugar business was also affected by the decline of prices in reaction to the heightened calls of food companies for the government to allow imports, and lower yield due to changing weather conditions.
“We had assumed that the price of raw sugar will hold during the first quarter, considering that it was the start of the milling season. However, sugar prices dropped significantly in December in reaction to the increasing clamor of food firms for the government to allow them to import sugar,” Tubio said.
Lower yield from sugar canes as a result of significant weather changes also affected the company’s financial performance.
RHI said the net loss from discontinued operations totaled P88 million. The amount represents the results of operations of Central Azucarera Don Pedro Inc., which was classified as held for sale following the group’s decision to sell the subsidiary’s assets to Universal Robina Corp. to focus on its businesses in Negros island.
The sale of CADPI is still being reviewed by the Philippine Competition Commission, the government’s anti-trust body.
RHI is one of the largest integrated sugar and ethanol producers in the Philippines.