MANILA – D&L Industries, a manufacturer of specialty food ingredients, plastics and oleochemicals, expects its second-half earnings to surpass estimates even amid the coronavirus, and business activity improving next year.
“Indications are it would be better than what we thought, so more than PHP1 billion,” D&L president Alvin Lao said in a virtual press briefing over the weekend.
Lao said their customers are recovering faster, particularly non-food manufacturing, after the tight lockdown imposed in the second quarter due to the pandemic.
He thus sees third-quarter earnings will “likely be better” than the second quarter as customers continued to operate despite the reimposition in Metro Manila of modified enhanced community quarantine for two weeks last month.
The company’s oleo-chemicals business is benefiting from increased mobility which is translating to bio-diesel sales, while its specialty plastics is gaining from the reopening of the global economy which is boosting sales of export-oriented automotive companies, he added.
D&L Industries reported its net income declined by 43 percent to PHP802 million in the first six months of 2020 from PHP1.4 billion during the same period last year, due to economic disruptions caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.
In the second quarter alone, its net income fell by 57 percent to PHP287 million from PHP665 million.
Lao is optimistic there is a “good chance” that 2021 will be also better than this year.
He said reports indicate that coronavirus case counts have not dropped dramatically but the number of serious cases are not going up.
Lao said economies worldwide are forecast to recover next year “so I think the same will hold for most companies (that) also 2021 would be better than 2020.”
“We did not cancel our capital expenditure, it still continues so from that perspective, we are being aggressive about growth next year,” he added. (PNA)
