Metro Pacific profit rises 5% to P5.2 B

MANILA, Philippines - Infrastructure holding firm Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) reported a five percent rise in net profit to P5.2 billion in the first nine months of the year on improved contributions from its toll road, healthcare, power and water distribution businesses.

Excluding non-recurring items, MPIC’s core net earnings expanded 12 percent to P5.6 billion from January to September compared with the same period a year ago.

Consolidated operating revenues reached P22.88 billion, up 11.39 percent from P20.54 billion with Maynilad Water Services Inc. accounting for more than half of the total.

For the third quarter alone, MPIC’s net earnings were flat at P1.55 billion.

Given the nine-month results, MPIC chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said the company would meet its core profit target for the year of more than P7 billion.

“The strong results reflect continuing improvements in service levels as well as efficiency gains for all our operating companies...The outlook for our full year core net income growth looks positive,” he said.

The holding firm’s financial performance for 2014, however, will hinge on Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System’s resolution on Maynilad’s rate rebasing as well as pending tariff increases on its tollways.

West zone water concessionnaire Maynilad chalked up revenues of P12.6 billion, eight percent higher than the P11.6 billion recorded a year ago due to higher billed volume and an average effective year-on-year tariff increase of four percent.

Maynilad filed a dispute notice with the International Chamber of Commerce International Court of Arbitration with respect to a regulatory order directing the company to cut rates by 4.8 percent over the next five years. It said rates should instead be raised to help fund as much as P1.1 trillion in investments until 2037.

Tollroad unit Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., on the other hand, turned in robust financial results with its core net income growing 29 percent as a result of increased traffic growth and lower tax rates, interest and operating costs on the North Luzon Expressway as well as the the first-ever contribution from Cavitex. 

Daily traffic at NLEX and the Cavitex went up six percent and nine percent, respectively.

Cavitex is a 14 kilometer toll road built into two segments running from Parañaque to Cavite with average traffic of 100,000 vehicle entries a day.

Meanwhile, the hospital group reported a 24 percent jump in net profit to P670 million, largely due to higher patient revenues, lower losses at the nursing schools and tighter expense controls.

MPIC is currently the largest private hospital group in the country with a total of 2,150 beds in its eight full-service hospitals which include Makati Medical Center, Cardinal Santos Medical Center, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Asian HOspital and De Los Santos Medical Center in Metro Manila; Central Luzon Doctors Hospital in northern Luzon, Riverside Medical Center in Visayas; and Davao Doctors Hospital in MIndanao.

For its power generation business, Manila Electric Co. saw a five percent hike in core net earnings to P13.6 billion on the strength of a higher average distribution tariff and a five percent increase in energy sales to 25,616 gigawatt hours.