THE Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) is looking at ending the year with P19 billion in core profit, after having posted a higher net income in the third quarter.
“October is almost finished. We’re quite comfortable giving more or less firm numbers for the entire year of 2016. We are confident Meralco can achieve a core income of P19 billion this year, slightly ahead of the 2015 core net income of P18.89 billion,” said Meralco Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan, after Monday’s presentation of the company’s financial report covering the first nine months of the year.
Meralco Senior Vice President and Chief Finance Officer Betty Siy-Yap said core income for the third quarter this year stood at P4.6 billion, higher than the previous year’s P4.154 billion.
Reported net income from July to September this year stood at P4.9 billion as against P4.4 billion in the same period a year ago.
Siy-Yap said 2016 third-quarter core profit is “about 30 percent” of Meralco’s P15-billion core profit for January to September this year. Reported net income at end-September this year stood at P15.7 billion, 3 percent lower than in the same period last year. Core profit at end-September was also lower by 5 percent, from P15.8 billion in 2015, due to lower revenues during the period.
Siy-Yap attributed the slightly lower earnings at end-September to “significantly lower fuel prices.”
Still, Pangilinan said he remains confident for Meralco to be able to deliver a consolidated core net income of P19 billion for 2016.
“Meralco typically produces more than P1 billion to P1.5 billion each month. So, we are likely to achieve the P19 billion this year,” he said.
At end-September, Meralco’s customer base increased to 5.9 million.
Year-to-date energy sales volume grew by 9 percent to 30,103 gigawatt-hours. Sales across all customer classes remained strong, Meralco said.
Electric revenues stood at P189.1 billion, lower by 1 percent due to lower fuel prices. Nonelectric revenues rose to P6 billion, almost 9 percent higher than that reported in 2015.
Capital expenditures for the first nine months of 2016 amounted to P7.5 billion.