Figaro Q2 profit: P222M (up 14% y/y); PAL block sale crossed at P1.40/share; AP gets BESS financing package (Wednesday, February 19)
Happy Wednesday, Barkada --
The PSE gained 101 points (!!) to 6095 ▲1.7%
Shout-out to Jing for being "shocked but also not surprised" by the state of cybersecurity in "the motherland", @frustratedDoe and Shanley Matthew Lumagod for supporting my push for a less-conservative PSE to allow more startups to IPO, to /u/Jafar_Morant for asking about the PAL block sale (more on that below), to Whatwherewhenhowhowhywhich for saying "COSCO and SM be like papansin and want the attention without spending" (add GCash to that, and I agree), and to arkitrader for the "MAY PLUS?" GIF.
▌[In today's MB](https://mailchi.mp/92404e16960b/figaro-q2-profit-up-14-to-p222m):
- Figaro Q2 profit: P222M (up 14% y/y)
Revenues flat
"Efficient overhead management"
Ahead of expansion schedule
- PAL block sale crossed at P1.40/share
71% discount to market price
11,500 trading days of PAL volume
- AP gets BESS financing package
Syndicate of local banks
BESS systems way better than alternative
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▌Main stories covered:
>- **[EARNINGS] Figaro Q4 profit: ₱222M (up 14% y/y)...** Figaro [FCG 0.78 ▼3.7%; 273% avgVol] [[link](https://edge.pse.com.ph/openDiscViewer.do?edge_no=8f8553c5ba112110ec6e1601ccee8f59)] posted a Q2/24 net income of ₱222 million, up 14% from its Q2/23 net income of ₱195 million. FCG credited “efficient overhead management and continued store expansion” for its improved performance, despite a slight dip in quarterly revenue (down 0.5%) and increased raw material costs due to inflation. As of the end of 2024, FCG has 216 stores in the Philippines (142 Angel’s Pizza, 63 Figaro, 8 Tien Ma, 2 Cafe Portofino, and 1 Koobideh Kebabs). FCG opened 34 new stores in 2024 (28 Angel’s Pizza and 6 Figaro), but said they’re pursuing a “prudent expansion strategy together with launching more exciting an innovative menu items and promos this 2025.”
> - ***MB:*** FCG just celebrated its second “IPO Birthday”, having hit the PSE for the first time back on the 24th of January, 2022. At the time, FCG had 90 stores and was planning to add another 61 stores with its IPO proceeds to have 300 systemwide stores by 2029. At 216 stores now, FCG seems ahead of schedule. It’s already done (more or less) what it said it would do according to the pared-down prospectus and the associated proceeds. It could maintain this pace and achieve that 300-store goal ahead of time, too. That’s all well and good, but the issue here is one of stock performance. It’s in a multi-year channel of higher highs and higher lows, but it’s still hovering right around its IPO price, with both FCG and Monde Nissin [MONDE 8.45 ▲3.7%; 95% avgVol] looking to offload sizeable stakes to the public.
>- [UPDATE] Philippine Airlines block sale of crossed at ₱1.40/share... The PSE notified investors that a trader applied to execute a block sale of ₱229 million worth of Philippine Airlines [PAL 4.21 ▼13.0%; 23% avgVol] shares, at a sale price of ₱1.40/share. The application was received on Friday, February 14, and executed on Monday, February 17. The execution price was at a 71% discount to PAL’s market price at the time of the transaction. The block sale represents approximately 11,500 trading days’ worth of PAL’s average daily volume.
> - ***MB:*** This is probably the first significant sale to come out of the 15 billion shares that PAL listed which were given to its multitude of creditors as part of its bankruptcy restructuring, and it demonstrates how shallow the market is for PAL’s stock right now. A great example is what happened yesterday. The stock dropped 13%, which is pretty terrible, but it did so off of just ₱9,210 in total traded value. That’s a dead market.
>- **[NEWS] Aboitiz Power gets BESS financing package from syndicate of local banks...** Aboitiz Power [AP 43.60 ▲3.8%; 194% avgVol] [[link](https://edge.pse.com.ph/openDiscViewer.do?edge_no=8a139a490a78853aec6e1601ccee8f59)] said it “secured financing for the expansion of its Battery Storage Systems” from BPI [BPI 129.00 ▲0.8%; 72% avgVol], Chinabank [CBC 87.05 ▲0.6%; 9% avgVol], and BDO [BDO 143.00 ▲3.2%; 63% avgVol]. While AP didn’t disclose the aggregate amount of the financing made available through the agreements, it did say that the funds will be used on projects co-located with its hydroelectric dams in Isabela and Benguet. As noted by AP’s press release, a BESS system is one that stores electricity and releases that electricity to the grid “when needed to augment supply or improve power quality”.
> - ***MB:*** Think of these BESS systems as large batteries that allow AP to store up electricity when it is cheap, and then release that electricity when it becomes more expensive. It’s power grid arbitrage. I’m so happy to see these BESS systems growing in popularity, because the previous iteration of this kind of facility is what is known as a pumped storage system, and just the thought of that makes life just feel so sad. Batteries feel much nicer in comparison to wasting a massive amount of electricity pumping water up a hill. These aren’t sexy facilities, and they’re mostly used for increasing the average price of the electricity sold by the co-located powerplant, but they’re useful little grid features that help considerably in the long run.
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