By Danessa Rivera (The
Philippine Star) | Updated October 25, 2016 - 12:00am
In a briefing yesterday, Meralco SVP
and CFO Betty Siy-Yap said the company’s core net income reached P14.96 billion
in the nine-month period ending September 2016, a five percent decline from
P15.8 billion in the same period last year. STAR/File Photo
MANILA, Philippines - Improved
performance in the third quarter helped power distributor Manila Electric Co.
(Meralco) nearly close the gap in meeting its 2016 core net profit guidance of
P19 billion, company officials said yesterday.
In a briefing yesterday, Meralco SVP
and CFO Betty Siy-Yap said the company’s core net income reached P14.96 billion
in the nine-month period ending September 2016, a five percent decline from
P15.8 billion in the same period last year.
Reported net income for the period
also slipped three percent to P15.68 billion from P16.15 billion last year.
But in the third quarter, core net
income rose 10 percent to P4.6 billion compared with P4.154 billion a year ago.
“The third quarter is 30 percent of
the core income of P15 billion,” Siy-Yap said.
For the nine-month period, revenues
went down one percent to P195.16 billion versus P197.05 billion last year even
as year-to-date energy sales rose nine percent.
Siy-Yap said the decline was largely
because of lower fuel prices which pulled down generation costs.
“We saw average fuel prices all for
coal, gas and oil at record low,” she said.
Coal prices averaged $54.36 per
metric ton, oil price an all-time low of $38.98 per barrel and Malampaya gas at
$6.1376 per GJ.
With the company’s performance,
Meralco chairman Manuel Pangilinan expressed confidence, the company will meet
its core profit guidance of P19 billion for the full-year, slightly ahead of
the core net income of P18.8 billion in 2015.
“Meralco typically produces more
than P1 billion a month in core net income and we’re about P15 billion in nine
months… So we’re between P3 billion and P4 billion away [from the target],” he
said.
Pangilinan said meeting the target
would be driven by growth in customer base and demand. “We continue to add
customers at three to four percent and then demand continues to grow,” he said.
As of end-September, Meralco’s
customer count stands at 5.98 million.
“We’re going to hit six million
customers some time this month,” Meralco SVP Alfredo Panlilio said.
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