Meralco 9-month income up 7.6%

Credit to Author: JORDEENE B. LAGARE| Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2019 17:17:39 +0000

LISTED Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) booked a 7.6-percent increase in its bottom line for the first nine months of the year.

In a press briefing on Monday, Meralco Senior Vice President Betty Siy-Yap said consolidated reported net income reached P18.32 billion against P18.21 billion in the same period a year ago.

From January to September this year, consolidated core net income hit P18.45 billion, up by 7.7 percent from P16.67 billion in 2018, and consolidated revenues also gained 6 percent to P241.12 billion as of end-September from P227.41 billion.

Yap primarily accounted greater revenues to higher generation charges from the combined effects of higher prices in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market; increased consumption across all customer sectors; slightly lower average prices of coal, oil and gas in the global market; appreciation of the Philippine peso against the US dollar; and the recently commissioned 500-megawatt (MW) supercritical coal-fired power plant in Mauban, Quezon.

Energy sales, said Meralco President and Chief Executive Officer Ray Espinosa, grew 6.3 percent to 35,005 gigawatt hours (GWh) for the nine-month period from 32,921 GWh in 2018.

Meanwhile, residential energy sales volume grew the most at 8 percent, followed by commercial and industrial segments at 6 percent and 5.1 percent, respectively, and customer count went up by 4.2 percent to 6.82 million from 6.54 million.

“Manageable inflation, together with increased liquidity in the financial system, provides opportunities for growth across all customer segments. There is no doubt that there will be significant domestic economic expansion with the expected improvement in government public investments in the coming months, in addition to the inflow from remittance of our overseas Filipino workers,” Meralco Chairman Manuel Pangilinan said.

Nonelectric revenues for the period stood at P5.8 billion, 6 percent lower than P6.1 billion.
Consolidated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization stood at P29.8 billion, 12.3 percent higher than P26.6 billion.

Pangilinan told reporters that it is “quite likely” the power distributor will book a consolidated core net income of more than P23 billion by the end of 2019.

“We anticipate sustained growth for Meralco resulting from the country’s continued overall economic expansion as well as growth that will follow the government’s ongoing infrastructure development projects,” he added.

Meralco shares dropped by 40 centavos or 0.11 percent to close at P355.80 apiece on Monday.

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