Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc.

Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for joining us to review RHI's unaudited results covering the period of first quarter of this year. I am Gina Depay, the company's investor relations officer. The panelists for this call are our president and CEO, Ms. Rubina Gokong-Uyente, our CFO, Ms. Nailin Kasiban, the managing director of the supermarket segment, Mr. Stanley Paul, The Group General Manager of the Drug Store, Tegme, Ms. Christine Tuarez. The Group General Manager of Robinson's Department Store and Toys R Us, Eugenina Chua. The General Manager of DIY and Pets, Mr. Ted Sogono. The General Manager of Uncle John's, Mr. Suresh Ramalingam. The Group General Manager of the Appliance, segment, Mr. Joby Santos and the general manager of GoCard NWS. This presentation will cover the company's financial and operational performance in 1 through 2023 and recent developments of the company. A Q&A session will follow after the presentation. As a reminder for the Q&A portion, please use the Q&A function to type in your questions. You would appreciate if you limit yourself initially to a maximum of three questions. You may queue back in for additional questions after. You may also use the raise hand function if you would like to ask your questions live. With that, I will turn you over to our president of GEO, Ms. Urbina Gokongwe.

Good afternoon. Here are the highlights of our consolidated results as of March 31, 2023. Consolidated net sales grew by 13.1% to 44.6 billion. Lended same-store sales growth up 9.2%. Capital expenditures of 685 million. Gross profit margin expansion of 60 bps to 23.6%. EBIT of 1.8 billion, up 14.8%, with EBIT margin rising by 10 bps to 4.1%. Core net earnings surged by 20.5% to 1.1 billion. Store portfolio of 2,327 stores and 2,149 PGP franchise branches nationwide. Our store count stood at 2,327, comprised... which comprising of 329 supermarkets, 1,005 drug stores, 51 department stores, 225 DIY stores, 418 convenience stores, and 299 specialty stores. We also have 2,149 franchise stores of TGP. We added 17 new stores in the first quarter. Bulk of the openings came from the supermarkets and drugstores. And we also opened some for DIY and specialty. Note that most of our store openings are done in the latter half of the year. Meanwhile, GoCart, our e-commerce platform, now has 15 banners with the recent addition of Uncle John's. On a consolidated basis, we were able to sustain strong top-line trends driven by high single-digit blended-same-store sales growth and revenue contributions from new stores. Our supermarkets, drugstores, department stores, and convenience store segment all posted double-digit revenue growth for the quarter. In terms of sales breakdown, our staples business continued to account for majority of the top-line with a 79% share. The balance, 21%, was accounted for by the discretionary segments. This is a more detailed picture of our P&L in the first quarter. Net sales are up 13.1% to 44.6 billion. Gross profit margin expanded by 60 bps to 23.6% due to assortment changes, higher private label and in-debt penetration and price adjustments. EBIT rose by 14.8% to 1.8 billion with EBIT margins improving by 10 bps to 4.1%. driven by robust SSSG gross margin gains and cost controls. Net income to parent declined by 54.5% to 537 million due to high interest expense resulting from the acquisition financing of BPI shares earlier this year, Forex losses and lower earnings from associates. Note that the higher interest expense for the purchase of the BPI share should be offset by the expected cash dividends when declared. However, core net earnings, which exclude interest income from bonds, forex, equity, and net earnings of associates, interest expense related to the BPI shares and others grew by 20.5% to 1.5 billion. I will now turn you over to Stanley, who will discuss the supermarket segment.

Thank you, Ms. Robina. The supermarket segment posted net sales of 25.6 billion in the first quarter. This is 14.1% higher year-on-year. Revenue growth was supported by the contribution of new stores opened in the last year and strong same-store sales growth of 8.7%, which benefited from higher transaction count. Gross profit margin expanded by 30 bps to 21.2% on the back of higher indent and private label penetration coupled with assortment shifts. Meanwhile, EBITDA surged by 16.2% to 2.1 billion, driven by strong top-line growth and gross profit margin expansion. These offset the incremental expenses from new stores and DC locations and higher freight costs, resulting from increase in fuel prices. EBITDA margins increased by 10 bps for the quarter to 8.3%. Turning you over to Tin for the drugstore segment.