Philippine conglomerate San Miguel 2010 recurring net income doubles-source

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* Net income about 20 bln pesos in 2010 vs 57.8 bln in 2009
* Recurring net income at around 17 bln pesos in 2010
* San Miguel Brewery’s net income rises 16 pct on yr (Adds background)

By Rosemarie Francisco

MANILA, March 14 (Reuters) – Philippine conglomerate San Miguel Corp’s (SMC.PS: Quote) recurring net profit doubled in 2010, a company source said, with its traditional brewery business delivering strong results even as the group diversifies into heavy industry.
San Miguel, the dominant player in the local food and beverage business for decades, has rapidly diversified over the past three years into power, mining, infrastructure, oil refining and telecommunications to fuel faster profit growth.
It is now the largest power producer on the main Philippine island of Luzon, accounting for over a quarter of installed capacity. The company has plans to put up additional power capacity of 3,000 megawatts in five years. [ID:nSGE71E02Q] The group had net profit of around 20 billion pesos ($460 million) in 2010, sharply lower from 57.8 billion pesos in 2009 when huge asset sales boosted earnings, the source said on Monday.
Excluding one-off items, net profit at the Philippines’ most-valuable listed firm doubled to about 17 billion pesos last year, said the source, who had knowledge of the figures.
Analysts had forecast net profit of 16.5 billion pesos at San Miguel in 2010, before rising to 23.7 billion pesos this year, according to consensus estimates of Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
San Miguel will release official 2010 numbers at around 0700 GMT on Monday.
Based on previously reported profit of 12.7 billion pesos for the first nine months of 2010, San Miguel posted net income of 7.3 billion pesos in the December quarter, well above a year-ago net profit of 800 million pesos, based on Reuters calculations. Net income at San Miguel Brewery (SMB.PS: Quote), the group’s traditional flagship unit, climbed 16 percent in 2010, the source said. Net profit at the brewery unit, the second most valuable company on the Philippine Stock Exchange, was 10 billion pesos in 2009.
On Monday, San Miguel Brewery declared a cash dividend of 14 centavos per share.
San Miguel ended down 2 percent at 160.3 pesos and its beer unit ended unchanged at 31 pesos on Monday, as the broader market index .PSI edged down 0.14 percent. San Miguel hit a record peak of 189.50 pesos in early January. ($1=43.7 pesos) (Reporting by Rosemarie Francisco; Editing by John Mair)