Megawide nets P491M

CONSTRUCTION and engineering firm Megawide Corp. posted P491.23 million in first quarter net profit attributable to equity holders of parent firm, around 52 percent higher year-on-year on robust construction revenues.

Including profits attributable to minority interest, Megawide’s first quarter net profit rose by 55 percent to P573.16 million, the company reported to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday.

Megawide posted a 119 percent or P3.21 billion increase in consolidated revenue compared to the same quarter last year, with core construction business contributing the lion’s share of 93 percent.

Megawide chief financial officer Oliver Tan said: “The country’s property sector continues to be strong, buoyed by the growing demand for residential and especially office spaces primarily from the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry. We are proud to be a contractor-of-choice for prime Philippine property developers.”

Construction revenues improved by 134 percent or P3.13 billion due to revenues generated from new projects such as phase 1 of the Meridian Park of DoubleDragon, Le Grand BPO Cluster phase 1 and 2 of Megaworld, 8990 Tower in Edsa and Tondo of 8990 Holdings Inc., Landers Warehouse Balintawak & Otis of Southeast Asia Retail Inc. and three solar power farm projects.

“Megawide’s foray into contracts for renewable energy facilities is a testament to the company’s strategy of diversifying and enhancing our experience and expertise to be ahead of the curve,” Tan said.

The enhanced construction revenue was topped by P2.5 billion worth of new contracts for the year’s first quarter. These included Phase 2 of Meridian Park of DoubleDragon, 10 West and St. Moritz of Megaworld, and Cyberpark Phase 2 of the Araneta Group.

Megawide has likewise started to unlock values from its diversification into infrastructure projects. Revenues from operations of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) contributed P431 million. Together with Bangalore-based partner GMR Infrastructure Limited, the group took over operations of the MCIA in November 2014 using the public-private partnership (PPP) framework.

MCIA operator and Megawide airport subsidiary GMR Megawide Cebu Airport Corp.(GMCAC) boosted its own revenues by 23 percent, driven by a 10-percent increase in passenger traffic compared to the same period in 2015. Domestic and international flights increased by 9 percent and 13 percent, respectively, from March 2015.

Construction of MCIA’s terminal 2 is currently ongoing and is expected to be operational by the end of June 2018.

“Results from GMCAC’s operations show that we are on the right track in achieving the goal we have for Megawide to be a diversified engineering and infrastructure company,” Tan said.