Meralco’s net profit rises 4.9% to P14.3b

Manila Standard Today
By Alena Mae S. Flores | Oct. 27, 2014 at 11:01pm

Power distributor Manila Electric Co. said Monday net income rose 4.9 percent in the first nine months to P14.31 billion from P13.64 billion a year ago on higher energy sales.

Meralco said consolidated core net income also increased 5.4 percent to P14.29 billion in the January-September period from P13.56 billion, despite a 2-percent decline in revenues.

Consolidated revenues, in which electricity sales accounted for 98 percent, dropped 2 percent to P202.9 billion, due to the combined effects of lower pass-through generation charge and reduction in revenues from contestable customers, or those who consumed at least 1 megawatt.

The adjustment in prices at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, lower distribution rate and unrealized sales due to three weather disturbances also weighed on revenues, the company said.

Meralco chairman Manuel Pangilinan said while energy sales increased more than 2 percent from a year ago, it lagged behind the growth of the gross domestic product of over 6 percent this year “due to climatic and power supply availability factors.”

“In terms of full-year outlook, based on the first nine months result, we’re guiding full-year profitability in terms on a core basis at P17.8 [billion] in reference... to the 2013 core of about P17 billion. That’s about 4.6-percent growth on core income in 2014 from 2013,” Pangilinan said.

Meralco said while peak demand was growing, no new major capacity was added to the Luzon grid during the period, resulting in increasingly thin reserves.

It said 36 incidents of forced outage of power plants were experienced in the first and second quarters of the year.

“These constraints on volume growth are expected to ameliorate for the balance of the year. However, lower tariff commencing July 2015 will bear down on distribution revenues,” Pangilinan said.

Billed customers reached 5.5 million as of end-September, with over 165,000 new customers accounts reflecting a growth of 4 percent year-on-year.

Meralco president Oscar Reyes said the company was moving to address the need for additional power supply for the dry months next year. source