Higher energy sales push Meralco nine-month income to P13.6B

Manila Times.net

Written by Madelaine B. Miraflor   Published on 30 October 2012

Despite the damage that were caused by several weather disturbances, publicly-listed Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) still managed to post a nine-month consolidated net income amounting to 13.6 billion.

In a disclosure to Philippine Stock Exchange, Meralco announced that its inaudited consolidated core net income, which excludes one-time, exceptional charges for the nine months ending September 30, 2012, amounted to P12.9 billion, while its consolidated reported net income amounted to P13.6 billion.

“Power consumption continues to be a barometer of the health of the economy. The rise in our energy sales volume reflects a resilient economy supported by stronger domestic consumption and higher government infrastructure spending. We continue to be optimistic about our business, having seen the better-the-expected results and are committed to implement capital expenditures, estimated to be in excess of P11 billion to further improve our network reliability,” Meralco Chairman Manny Pangilinan said.

The disclosure added that volume energy sold during the first nine months of 2012 reflected an 8-percent growth despite the number of severe weather disturbances and holidays during the period.

“There was an estimated 73 gigawatt hour of unserved energy attributed to the forced outages due to the Southwest Monsoon Habagat [triggered by Tropical Storm Haiku] and to Typhoon Gener and an additional 6 GWh reduction because of the two holidays in August,” the company said in the disclosure.

Also, Meralco’s billed customers grew to 5.2 million, a total of over 130 thousand new customer accounts, while its core earnings per share for the nine months was P11.438, and reported earnings per share, P12.10.

“Our network, customer service and support facilities are ready for the expected increase in customer count and load growth as GDP [gross domestic product] continues to grow at the estimated rate of 5 percent. Meralco will continue to be the country’s partner in development. Our share in the total bill is only 16 percent,” Pangilinan said.

He also said that in terms of the generation charge, which accounts for 58 percent of the average bill, Meralco successfully managed to close new long-term Power Sales Agreement (PSA) of 2,880 megawatts.

“These PSAs will result purchased power costs lower than those of the existing long-term and Transition Supply Contracts. This will contribute to containing the generation charge component of power prices, which is foremost among Meralco’s compelling commitment to public interest,” he added.     source