By Danessa Rivera (The
Philippine Star) | Updated September 20, 2016 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - Power
distributor Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) sees no need to adjust its
P19-billion full-year income forecast even as second half of the year is
expected to be slower compared to the previous half, the company’s top official
said.
Meralco president and CEO Oscar
Reyes said they are retaining the P19-billion profit guidance for this year
even as the second semester is expected to be weaker in the absence of warmer
temperature.
“(The second half) will not be as
strong as the first half especially during the summer months because we will
not feel the effect of [higher] temperature,” he said.
However, Reyes said growth will
continue to be driven by customer base expansion and economic growth.
“I think the impact of the real
growth and the fact that in the case of residential, verticals and horizontals
are there and [continue to] increase in numbers. You’ve got an expanding
customer base and then commercial sector seems to continue to be busy,” he
said.
Earlier, Meralco officials said this
year’s performance is expected to be in the vicinity of 2015’s results because
of the lower average distribution rate.
Last year, core net income went up
four percent to P18.89 billion.
Meralco has reported an income of
P10.4 billion in the first half of the year, lower by 11 percent compared to
P11.8 billion a year earlier, due the absence of one-off recovery gains and
lower distribution tariff.
For the whole year, Meralco chairman
Manuel V. Pangilinan said energy sales are expected to grow between six and
seven percent. In 2015, energy sales rose 5.6 percent to 37,124 gigawatt-hours
(gwh) from 35,160 gwh.
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