Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc.

It's already 4 o'clock. Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for joining us. We have 500 results for the full year of 2024. I am Gina Dipali, the Company's Investor Relations Officer. The speakers for today are standing for our newly appointed President and CEO, Mayreen Kasiman, our CFO. Christine Tuarez, the managing director of the big formats for the food segment. Joanne Arceo, the group general manager of the drugstore segment. Nina Pruest-Luisa, the general manager of Robinson's department store and duty. Ted Sogono, the group general manager of DIY and Pets. And Jody Sanfos, the group general manager of our appliances segment. Our chairman, Ms. Robina Gokumolpe, is also in this call. That is the agenda for this afternoon's call. We will provide an overview of our financial performance and outlooks on our minority investments. As a reminder for the Q&A session, please use the Q&A function on your Zoom.org to invite in your questions. Please limit initially to a maximum of three questions, including follow-ups. You may queue back into the Q&A box for additional questions. If you would like to ask your questions live, you may use the raise hand function. With that, I will now turn you over to Stanley, our President of CAO.

Thank you, Gina. Here are the highlights for results for the fourth quarter of 2024. Consolidated net sales increased by 5.3% to 56.8 billion. Blended same-store sales growth came in at 3.4%. Cross-profit accelerated by 8.7%, 38.8 billion. EBIT grew faster by 20.9% to 3.4 billion. Cornette earnings registered at 2.3 billion, higher by 21.5% versus last year. And net income to parent of 2.5 billion, 62.4% higher. For the fall year 2020 for highlights, consolidated net sales of 199.2 billion, higher by 3.7%. Blended sales for sales growth of 1.5%. Cross-profit rose by 5.5% to 48.1 billion. EBIT came in at 9.8 billion, higher by 9.1%. For net earnings, surged by 12.3% to 6.3 billion. And net income to parent amounted to 10.3 billion, 2.5x higher. This is mainly due to the one-time gain from the DPI from the stock merger. Despite minor disturbances in the fourth quarter, including six typhoons from late October to mid-November, same-store sales growth accelerated to 3.4%, supported by easing inflation, translated to strong holiday season sales. Full-year SSSG ended at 1.5%, And the healthy fourth quarter performance was driven by the food, drugstore, and department store segments. Now, a deeper look at our P&L. EBIT saw an acceleration in the fourth quarter, driven by improved category means, continued vendor support, and savings from the rationalization of underperforming stores in the prior quarters. This full year, EBIT higher by 9.1%, eclipsing top-line growth. Net income to Peret grew by 62.4% to 2.5 billion in the fourth quarter, delivered by a reversal of Forex losses to Gates, lower losses from Associates following the reclassification of full-time, with our stake reduced from 20% last year to 19%, and the write-off of the investment in Beauty M&L in the fourth quarter of 2023. Net income to Peret for the year reached 10.3 billion, 2.5x higher than last year, benefiting mainly from a substantial gain from the DPI R-bound temperature. Core earnings, excluding one-time items, increased by 21.9%, 2.3 billion in the fourth quarter, with four-year core earnings rising 12.3%, 6.3 billion. In terms of segment contributions, the four stable businesses accounted for 78% of total sales, and 80% of total EBITDA, respectively, in 2024. Meanwhile, our discretionary formats comprise 22% of total CIS and 20% of total EBITDA, respectively. And as of December 2024, our score accomplished 2,453, comprising 761 food segment stores, 1,133 drug stores, 50 department stores, 227 DIY stores, and 282 specialty stores. Additionally, we have 2,150 franchise DGP stores. For the year, we added 60 net new stores, primarily under the drug store banner. Next speaker is Ting Tuarez for the food segment.

Thank you, Stan. Food segment net sales grew by 6.1% to $33.5 billion in fourth quarter. driven by 4.1% same-store sales growth, supported by higher transaction count and a basket cycle increase for the second consecutive quarter. Phone year net sales reached $220.3 billion, up by 4.6%, with same-store sales growth at 2.3%. Increased vendor support and stable demand for important products boosted gross margins by 30 dips to 22.7%. As a result, EBITDA increased by 13.7% to 3.2 billion in fourth quarter, bringing the full year total to 10.6 billion, higher than the top-line growth rate of 6.1%. Now I hand you over to Joanne for your question. Good afternoon. Net sales in the drugstore segment increased by 5.9% to 9.5 billion in the fourth quarter, with full-year sales rising by 7.3% to 35.8 billion, primarily driven by renewed stores. Same-store sales growth slowed down to 1.6% in the fourth quarter from a high base of 8.6%, the same period of last year, due to lower OPC demand, and sales were impacted by the six major typhoons that hit Luzon during the quarter. Full-year savings store sales growth was at 3.2%. Gross margin expanded by 140 bits to 22.3% during this period, lifting full-year margin by 50 bits to 21.5%, driven by vendor support and higher house grant penetration. Full-year EBITDA grew by 2.1% to 3.1 billion, slower than complying growth due to store expansion, and higher GC costs from new systems and facilities. Turning it now over to Nina. Same-store sales growth in the department store segment accelerated in the fourth quarter to 6.6%. Fueled by higher customer spending during a strong holiday season, net sales per year grew by 2.1% to $16.6 billion. Gross margin improved by 50 bps to 30.4% in Q4, then 30 bps to 30.9% for the full year, driven by increased vendor support, higher DCPs, and improved category mix. Higher operating expenses attributable to rent, personal costs, and marketing efforts for this after launch contributed to the slight decline in addition to $1.2 billion. Turning it over to Ted.