MANILA, Philippines?The Lopez-led power holding firm First Philippine Holdings Corp. booked a record-high net income of P27 billion in the first half due to a hefty gain from the sale of additional shares in power distributor Manila Electric Co.

As mark-to-market gains, higher finance income and lower finance costs complemented the windfall from Meralco, unaudited net income attributable to equity holders of the parent surged to P24.9 billion from only P849 million in the same period in 2009.

But even without the gain from the sale of Meralco shares, net income attributable to parent amounted to P1.3 billion, up by 52 percent from a year ago.