MPIC seen breaching P22.4-B full-year performance goal

Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) expects to exceed P22.4 billion in core earnings this year after posting record-high core net income in the first nine months, owing to strength in its energy business.

The conglomerate led by billionaire Manuel V. Pangilinan saw its core earnings surged by 28 percent to a record P20.8 billion in the January to September period.

Net income, which includes nonrecurring gains from the MPIC’s real estate business, ballooned by 44 percent to P23.1 billion.

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MPIC chief financial officer Chaye Cabal-Revilla told reporters on Thursday that, despite a historically slower fourth quarter, they were slated to go over their full-year target.

“Normally, year-on-year, the fourth quarter is the lowest for MPIC,” Revilla said during a press briefing. “The biggest contributor to that is power because it’s colder in November and December … But we already are at P20.8 billion, so [earnings] will be over [the target].”

The top line of MPIC, whose core businesses are energy, toll roads and water, reached P53.76 billion, a 20-percent jump from the same period last year.

The energy segment under Manila Electric Co. was the largest income contributor at 63 percent.

The country’s largest private electricity distributor saw its net income rise by 19 percent to P33.8 billion on higher contributions from the power generation business.

Energy sales growth was at 7 percent to 40,872 gigawatt-hours as demand grew during the summer months.

Total revenues showed a modest 6-percent increase to P355.4 which was slightly offset by lower energy fees at subsidiary Global Business Power.

Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC), which is responsible for road link projects at major thoroughfares across the country, saw its net income swell by 28 percent to P5.2 billion on the back of higher contributions from its toll roads in Indonesia and Vietnam.

MPTC’s revenues ended at P23 billion, up by 16 percent.

Maynilad Water Services Inc., meanwhile, booked a 23-percent climb in revenues to P24.9 billion.

“With MPIC continuing to maintain a low cost of capital, [it] is poised to maintain its very strong growth trajectory for the rest of the year,” Pangilinan, MPIC chair said in a statement. —Meg J. Adonis