With its power business as the lead anchor, Metro Pacific Investments Corp., an infrastructure conglomerate led by businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan, saw its consolidated core net income surge by 37 percent in the first nine months of the year.
In a stock exchange disclosure on Tuesday, the company announced that consolidated core net income clocked in at P16.2 billion from P11.8 billion in the same period a year ago.
MPIC pointed out that the growth in financial and operating results from its holdings delivered a 31-percent boost in contribution from operations, primarily driven by the strong performance of the power generation business and higher water tariff for the water concession.
Of its core businesses, MPIC's power arm, the Manila Electric Co., or Meralco, had the largest share at P13.8 billion or 69 percent of net operating income.
The toll roads and water businesses, through Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. and Maynilad Water Services, Inc., contributed P4.1 billion and P3.5 billion, respectively.
"We can maintain our growth from the first half and we should be able to sustain that. The growth of Meralco is mainly due to lower base in 2022, because of the true-up refund, which aggregated about P7.8 billion starting May 2022, up to almost December," MPIC chief finance, risk and sustainability officer Chaye A. Cabal-Revilla said in an interview with reporters last week.
"I think one of the things that also happened in 2023 was that we were able to collect versus last year where we had many issues in terms of collection, especially from the commercial and industrial customers," Cabal-Revilla added.
Additionally, MPIC announced that reported net income attributable to the parent company went up by 22 percent to P16.1 billion against P13.1 billion last year. It benefited from gains from the acquisition of Landco Pacific Corp.
For MPIC chairman, president and CEO Pangilinan, the positive financial gains from January to September were " fruits of strategic investments in the power generation business."
"Our consistently strong performance reflects significant volume increases for our core businesses on power, toll roads, and water, bolstered by favorable tariff adjustments and savings resulting from operational efficiencies," he said.
Meralco recently secured 1,880 megawatts or MW of renewable energy capacity — surpassing its initial target of 1,500 MW under the Renewable Portfolio Standards or RPS policy.
Amid an aggressive sustainability drive, Meralco PowerGen Corp. or MGen, the power generation arm of Meralco, also earmarked P18 billion to accelerate its renewable energy or RE expansion.
The investment will bankroll the development of over 2 gigawatts or GW of gross RE capacity from solar and wind power—targeted to be delivered by the end of the decade or by 2030.
The allotted budget will also help MGen and its renewable energy unit MGen Renewable Energy or MGreen augment its RE capacity to 1,500 MW as it will fund investments in larger green energy projects, including those with battery energy storage systems.
MPIC is the Philippine arm of Hong Kong-based investment holding firm First Pacific Company Ltd.
It currently owns 47.5 percent of Meralco, 99.9 percent of Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., 52.8 percent of Maynilad Water Services Inc. and 20 percent of Metro Pacific Health Corp., among other assets.