Whenever a motorist buys a Toyota vehicle, this boosts the income of GT Capital Holdings Inc. of the Ty family. This is because GT Capital has a 51-percent interest in Toyota Motor Philippines Corporation (TMP), the leading car company in the Philippines.

The second growth driver of GT Capital is Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company (Metrobank), which is still among the top 5 banks in the Philippines.

TMP and Metrobank make up the core business of GT Capital, and this has made the holding company’s stocks listed at the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) one of the best performers this year, according to a study by Maybank Investment Banking Group (IBG).

“GTCAP is one of the best-performing stocks so far in 2024 on the PSE with a 19-percent YTD (year-to-date) rise,” Maybank IBG said.

When it comes to vehicle sales, Maybank IBG said that TMP still has the biggest market share among car companies in the Philippines.

“Motor vehicle sales reached 34,060 units in Jan’24 (+15.5 percent year-on-year), with TMP holding the biggest market share at 47.2 percent, followed by Mitsubishi (17.9 percent), Ford (7.2 percent), Nissan (7.2 percent) and Suzuki (4.4 percent),” Maybank IBG said.

“TMP posted 20-percent growth YoY (year-on-year) in January 2024, ahead of our FY (fiscal year) 2024 forecast of 8-percent growth. We expect this to normalize towards the middle of the year given the high base of second quarter of 2023. Hence, we raise our volume growth forecast to only 10 percent,” it added.

Maybank IBG also sees TMP benefiting from the growing popularity of electric or hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), as Toyota and Lexus have such type of vehicles in their line up.

Metrobank’s successful bond offer

For its part, Metrobank reported that its net income increased by 28.9 percent last year to P42.2 billion from P32.8 billion in 2022. The bank is still the biggest contributor to the income of GT Capital.

“Metrobank remains the biggest income contributor at 50 percent, followed by TMP at 25 percent,” Maybank IBG said.

The bank also successfully concluded its offering of a dual tranche, 5-year and 10-year US dollar denominated notes amid overwhelming demand, which demonstrates investor confidence toward Metrobank.

The final order book was more than 11 times oversubscribed, reaching $5.6 billion from investors globally, Metrobank said in a statement.

This successful offering made Metrobank the first private bank to issue a long-dated 10-year bond. Moody’s gave the 5- and 10-year bonds an investment grade rating of “Baa2,” or at the same level as the Philippines’ dollar-denominated debts.

“We are positively overwhelmed with the high interest we received from global investors for this issuance. It shows their strong confidence on Metrobank’s credit and track record in the Philippines. This offering will fund the bank’s key growth initiatives as we continuously develop innovative financial solutions to serve our clients,” said Fabian Dee, president of Metrobank.

As for GT Capital, it reported a net income of P23.09 billion for the first three quarters of of 2023, up 54 percent from P14.95 billion a year earlier.

Meanwhile, the shares of GT Capital listed at the PSE has been trading above P700 from the middle part of February. Over a 52-week period, GT Capital’s highest price per share is over P700 while the lowest price was P462 per share.

Because of the profitability of TMP and Metrobank, Maybank IBG sees GT Capital shares reaching P1,060 in the next 12 months. This makes the shares of the Ty family’s holding company a “buy” for stock market investors.