‘Slight’ gains seen in Meralco profits
MANILA Electric Co. (Meralco) expects to continue reporting higher profits as of end-September, its top executive said, following a strong start to 2018.
“I think we’re expecting a slight improvement in our income because volumes for this year are slightly better than last year, particularly because of the first three months. They were very strong,” Meralco President Oscar Reyes told reporters.
Both revenue and volume are projected to be “slightly better because our year-to-date volume for the nine months is around 4.5 to 5 percent,” he added.
Meralco’s January-September consolidated core net income hit P15.4 billion last year, up 3 percent from the comparable 206 period. Energy sales, meanwhile, gained 4.3 percent to 31,401 gigawatt-hours (GWh).
Reyes said volumes had softened in recent months, with August in particular up just “half a percent” year-on-year and a subsequent acceleration in September limited to 2.5 percent.
“What used to be fairly high level, robust level is trending downwards,” he claimed.
The country’s largest power distributor reported core net income P10.9 billion in the first half of 2018, 7.2 percent higher year-on-year.
Energy sales hit 21,665 GWh, with June — historically the strongest sales month — accounting for 3,969 GWh, which the company described as “the highest ever volume wheeled in a month in Meralco’s 115-year operations.”
Meralco shares fell by P5.80 or 1.64 percent to P346.80 apiece on Friday.
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