Meralco earnings flat at P17.2 B

By Iris C. Gonzales (The Philippine Star) | Updated March 18, 2014 - 12:00am 

MANILA, Philippines - Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s biggest power distributor, posted a net income of P17.2 billion in 2013, nearly unchanged from P17.117 billion in 2012, company officials said in a briefing yesterday. 
Meralco president Oscar Reyes attributed the slight increase to higher electricity sales, among other factors. 
“Our continued significant investments in a stronger, more resilient network and customer service infrastructure, and our gains in operational excellence to keep up with increased market demand have enabled us to sustain further growth in our customer base to nearly 5.4 million customer accounts and in our consolidated electricity sales volume to over 34,000 gigawatt-hours,” he said. 
These results reflect the favorable impact of the increase in consolidated electricity sales volume of 34,084 gigawatt-hours, up four percent over 2012, driven by sustained growth of over three percent in the number of customers to nearly 5.4 million, improved contributions from major subsidiaries and the recently acquired minority interest in Global Business Power Corp., and containment of costs and operating expenses, Meralco said in a separate report. 
Last year, Meralco acquired a 20 percent stake in Global Business Power Corp. During the briefing, Meralco chief financial officer Betty Siy-Yap said consolidated revenues, meanwhile, rose five percent 2012. 
“Consolidated revenues, of which electricity accounts for 99 percent or P294.8 billion, rose to P298.6 billion, five percent better than 2012,” she said . 
The higher revenues are largely attributable to the four percent increase in volume and a change in the overall sales mix, she said. Siy-Yap added that said the company included the consolidated revenues for November and December 2013. 
“Consolidated revenues include unbilled revenues for November and December 2013 relating to the unbilled amount of the pass-through generation, transmission and other charge components of the price in excess of P5.67 per kwh, subject of a temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the Supreme Court of the Philippines in respect of the implementation of the generation charge increase for the November 2013 supply month,” the company said in a report. 
During the year, Meralco also recognized a gain of P136. 8 million or the equivalent of $3.3 million from its fee arising from the successful bid for the privatization of two distribution utilities in Nigeria, namely Ibadan Electricity Distribution Co. and Yola Electricity Distribution Co. 
Moving forward, Meralco chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said the company is optimistic that business would remain strong this year. 
“As the economy sustains its growth momentum, we remain determined to build on our gains and drive performance further in 2014,” he said. source