MPIC sees net profit of P7.8B this year

Metro Pacific Investments Corp., the Philippine-listed infrastructure conglomerate of Hong Kong’s First Pacific Group, was expecting profit this year to hit P7.8 billion as it books gains across its business units, according to the company’s top official.

Metro Pacific chair Manuel V. Pangilinan gave the guidance in an interview with reporters last week. Metro Pacific earlier announced that core profit in 2013 hit P7.2 billion, up 10 percent, while reported net income was at P7.2 billion, a gain of 22 percent. This means Metro Pacific’s profit guidance for 2014 would represent a gain of about 8.3 percent over last year.

“The [growth] will be across the board,” Pangilinan said at the sidelines of a business forum organized by PLDT SME Nation on Friday. He cited the company’s main water, toll roads and electricity retailing businesses.

At the end of the first quarter, Maynilad Water Services Inc., the water concessionaire for Metro Manila’s west zone, accounted for the bulk of the group’s net operating income at 40 percent. This was followed by Manila Electric Co., which contributed 33 percent, and Metro Pacific Tollways, operator of North Luzon Expressway and Manila Cavite Expressway, at 21 percent.

Metro Pacific also operates a chain of hospitals, which accounted for 6 percent of net operating income in the first quarter. The company’s hospital group, with its relatively small contribution, was expected to grow faster in the coming years, partly as the company acquires more medical facilities and through  the entry of a strategic investor, GIC of Singapore, in May.

The hospital group has a total of 2,150 beds with its portfolio that included Makati Medical Center, Cardinal Santos Medical Center, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Asian Hospital and Medical Center and DLSMC in Metro Manila; CLDH in central Luzon; Riverside Medical Center in the Visayas; and Davao Doctors Hospital in Mindanao.

The company has also been active in the Aquino administration’s public private partnership (PPP) program having bid and won the P1.72 billion contactless automated fare collection system for elevated railways in Metro Manila with partner Ayala Corp.

Also with Ayala, Metro Pacific is set to bag the P65-billion Light Rail Transit Line 1 PPP deal after placing the sole bid for the railway project. Miguel R. Camus