MPIC confident of hitting P 12-B full-year earnings goal after strong Q2

Infrastructure conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) delivered a solid second quarter, putting the group on track with its P12-billion core earnings goal for the full year.

MPIC’s core second quarter net profit came in at P3.5 billion, up by 37 percent quarter-on-quarter and 82-percent higher than the low base seen last year when lockdown measures in the country were at their strictest.

This brought MPIC’s six-month core net profit to P6 billion, up by 13 percent year-on-year, driven largely by improved traffic on its toll roads and higher volume of electricity sold.

Including nonrecurring items, MPIC’s consolidated net income rose by 243 percent year-on-year to P10.4 billion, buoyed by gains recognized from the sale of shares in Global Business Power and Thai unit Don Muang Tollways.

The surge in first semester earnings was also aided by the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Law, which slashed income tax rates to 25 percent from 30 percent.

“We’re confident about meeting the [full-year P12 billion] core guidance numbers,” MPIC president Jose Ma. Lim said at a press briefing on Wednesday.

Lim noted MPIC’s financial performance was more adversely affected during the comparative period last year because the domestic economy had been totally shut down.

“But since then, the government and including our hospitals have learned how to adjust to new lockdowns. We feel [that the coming] lockdown will affect the transport segment of our portfolio, but not to the same degree,” Lim said.

He noted MPIC’s group-wide tollway traffic was now hitting 774,000 vehicles daily, just 12 percent below prepandemic levels.

On the railway business, he noted that because capacity utilization was still restricted by the government, the average ridership of about 120,000 per day was still just 42 percent of prepandemic levels.

“But otherwise, I think all our businesses are doing well, particularly the hospitals. They have already learned how to adjust to [the COVID-19 pandemic]. In the first lockdown, they were severely affected. In fact, they lost money in most instances. But, by comparison, they have recovered to almost normal operations and [are back to] profitability,” he said. INQ