MPIC expects 11.6% profit growth in 2016

Infrastructure giant Metro Pacific Investments Corp. is projecting higher earnings for the year while anticipating that regulatory issues over rate increases left hanging by the previous administration would be resolved.

Metro Pacific chair Manuel V. Pangilinan said the company would end 2016 with a core profit of P11.5 billion, up 11.6 percent from 2015 level. For the first six months of the year, Metro Pacific said core profit was up 13 percent to P6.6 billion, led by its toll roads and power businesses.

Total revenue during the period increased by 24 percent to P21.7 billion year-on-year.

The company held a briefing Wednesday, with officials affirming that Metro Pacific would continue to invest the bulk of its resources in the Philippines in the next  four to five years. It has made comparatively smaller overseas investments in toll roads in Vietnam and Thailand and is seeking acquisitions in Malaysia and Indonesia, Metro Pacific president Jose Maria K. Lim said.

The company has set aside P58 billion this year mainly for its power (Manila Electric Co.) and water (Maynilad Water Services Inc.) businesses. The company also operates the largest chain of private hospitals in the Philippines and, in partnership with Ayala Corp., operates the Light Rail Transit Line 1 in Metro Manila.

“I am hopeful that the positive tone toward infrastructure investment set by the new administration will lead to accelerating development for our country and prompt resolution of past regulatory issues,” Pangilinan said.

These involve rate increase petitions by Maynilad Water Services Inc. and toll roads North Luzon Expressway and Cavite Expressway.

Metro Pacific said the Arbitration Tribunal was constituted during the fourth quarter of 2015 and the arbitration was expected to be heard in December 2016 in Singapore, the company said. For toll roads, Lim said they were given assurances by the transportation department that its toll hike petitions, ignored by he previous administration, would be “addressed.”

“But they would like to see improvements on the existing toll ways (first),” Lim said.