Philippine Seven Corporation, the listed licensor of 7-Eleven convenience stores, is halving its budget for capital expenditures (capex) this year as it suspends expansion plans due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In a virtual media briefing on July 16, 2020, Head of Finance Lawrence M. de Leon said the company's capex had been reduced to P2 billion to support the launch of at least 200 new stores. About the capital expenditures, the company is revisiting plans. Initially it's P4 billion. It's around P2 billion at the moment. However, the situation remains fluid, so the capex budget is still subject to another round of evaluation. While the plan is to open at least 200 new stores by year's end. Some of the existing stores might close due to sustained challenges from the pandemic. Since then, the company was able to reopen most of its store base, and only 5% of the stores remain closed to date. However, the company continued to record a net loss during the April-to-June period. 'In Q2, the company is still incurred net loss, which the company will report in August. However, the actual that the company had was lower than what was expected initially. The market development plan of the Company was adversely affected by the pandemic. The company continuously monitoring the situation to determine whether the easing of lockdown restrictions will favorably impact the economy. The company believes that consumer confidence will not be comparable with pre-COVID level over the medium term. The company confirms that the reported capital expenditure is correct and the company shall be utilizing the strength of balance sheet to fund revised expansion plan and make a pivot to product and service offerings that are more relevant during these challenging times. Furthermore, the company has seen resilience in sales as the company gradually re-open our 7-Eleven convenience stores all over the country. More than 95% of stores are now operational to serve the communities where it is present. As a result, the level of net loss was lower than initially expected and this shall be reported once the review of the financial statements by external auditors is completed. The company believes that things are getting better and the company will come out of this stronger and be able to respond to the opportunities that shall arise from this crisis.