Meralco posts P16.265-B core income

MANILA, Philippines - Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s largest power distributor, reported yesterday  that it surpassed its P16-billion core net income target for last year, thanks to higher electricity sales.

Meralco president Oscar Reyes said core net income reached P16.265 billion last year, up nine percent from the previous year’s P14.9 billion.

The company’s net income grew by a faster 29 percent to P17 billion, Meralco said in a separate statement.

Consolidated revenues, of which electricity accounts for 99 percent or P283 billion, went up to P285.3 billion, 11 percent better than 2011 while consolidated core EBITDA was P26.8 billion for 2012.

“The higher revenue is attributable to the seven percent increase in volume over the 30,592 gigawatt-hour (GwH) record in 2011 sales and the higher generation charge, which were partly mitigated by lower Meralco distribution rate and transmission charge to customers,” Meralco said.

Consolidated volume of energy sold for 2012 stood at 32,771 GWh, seven percent higher than 2011.

The average distribution charge stood at P1.55 per kilowatt-hour in 2012, three centavos lower than the previous year on account of the higher share of industrial and commercial customers in the overall sales mix.

In its report, Meralco managed to keep pace with the growth of the Philippine economy by registering an increase of 7.1 percent in electricity sales volume in 2012.

This is higher than the average annual growth of four percent for the preceding three years to 2007 to 2009 and at six percent since 2010.

“We met record demand for electricity without any rise in distribution charges and managed to bring the system loss rate to record low levels, passing on the resulting savings to customers,” Reyes said.

For this year, Meralco chairman Manuel Panigilinan said prospects are bright, with profits expected to beat last year’s level.

“This year we’re off to a good start with respect to the first two months of the year because of higher energy sales. The full-year outlook for 2013 will be ahead of 2012,” Pangilinan said.

He said the company may have better indications at the end of the first quarter.

“With two months into 2013 and as we look into the remaining ten months of this year, we continue to focus on delivering growth and profitability opportunities and expect core net income for 2013 to exceed 2012,” he said.

The company has allotted P13 billion for capital expenditures this year from P10.3 billion last year.

Meralco intends to refinance existing debts of P14 to P15 billion this year through a loan from local banks, said chief finance officer Betty Siy-Yap.