PHILIPPINE Seven Corp. (PSC), the local licensee of convenience store network 7-Eleven, is spending P4.5 billion this year to open 450 new stores across the country.
“The total capital expenditures (capex) to support the 450 new stores of this year would be around P4 billion to P4.5 billion and will mainly go to the opening of new stores, 60 percent of which would be franchisees and the remaining 40 percent will be corporate-owned,” PSC head of finance and investor relations Lawrence de Leon told reporters last week.
PSC started the year with 3,768 stores and opened 170 new stores as of end-June.
“We’re basically nearing the 4,000 store mark, which we expect to achieve sometime in the fourth quarter,” de Leon said.
“We’re also allotting [a] budget out of the P4.5 billion to remodel older stores as we renew the contracts for those existing stores.”
PSC showed a strong performance in 2023, posting a net profit of P3.48 billion, up 69.3 percent from the previous year, with system-wide sales recording a 24.5 percent increase to P82.2 billion.
The company said that it was committed to strengthening its partnership with Seven Bank Ltd. of Japan by putting up cash-recycling ATM (automated teller machines) machines in all 7-Eleven outlets nationwide.
As of end-2023, there were 3,028 ATMs already installed, covering 80 percent of PSC’s store network.
The company’s president and chief executive officer, Jose Victor Paterno, said local banks had also tapped PSC’s store network by putting up their own ATMs, enabling customers to deposit cash and get credit in real-time for their purchases and payments.
“[T]o be clear, this is run by PAPI (Pito AxM Platform Inc.), which is an affiliate of Seven Bank of Japan, a really old affiliate,” Paterno said. “And, yes, they are always, they have been knocking on the doors of all banks.”
“Right now, there are three. [The] pioneer one was BDO, and then came Land Bank, and then RCBC [Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.] followed recently. And there are still talks with others.”
PSC announced last week the declaration of stock dividends for over 756.42 million shares, with a par value of P1.00 apiece, to be taken from the company’s authorized and unissued capital stock.
The record date for entitlement to the stock dividend is Aug. 2, 2024 and the payment date is Aug. 15, 2024.
The board earlier approved a cash dividend of P9.60 per share that was paid out last June 4, 2024.
Last month, PSC’s board also approved a plan to revert unappropriated retained earnings amounting to P6.8 billion, as reflected in its 2022 audited financial statements, due to the completion of related projects and capex as of the first quarter of 2024.
PSC shares closed up 5.90 or 5.13 percent, to P109.50 apiece last Friday.
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