MANILA Electric Co. (Meralco) has posted strong first-quarter results and expects consolidated core net income to exceed P40 billion this year.
The power firm on Monday reported that net income for the January-March period was 19 percent higher at P9.60 billion, from P8.07 billion a year earlier, following significant contributions from its business units.
Meralco Chairman and CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan said the company would strive to sustain the strong growth pace set in the quarter.
"The distribution utility business has been performing very well for the first quarter. And that performance is expected to continue with the balance of the year for the next three quarters," he noted.
"For the revenues, we also expect that to continue for the balance of the year. ... Given the foregoing, Meralco's consolidated core net income for the full year is expected to reach over P40 billion."
Consolidated core net income in the first three months grew by 12 percent to P10.08 billion from P9.05 billion while consolidated revenues dipped slightly to P104.50 billion from P105.60 billion, mostly due to lower pass-through charges and lower energy fees during the period.
Meralco's average retail rate increased by less than 4 percent to P10.78 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) from P10.41 per kWh last year due to the completion of the distribution rate true-up refund in May 2023.
Meralco said it also completed several bidding processes for 15-year power supply agreements covering its 3,000-megawatt (MW) baseload requirements, along with a 400-MW baseload interim power supply agreement that is effective until February 2025.
It added that consolidated distribution utility energy sales volume rose to 12,307 gigawatt-hours (GWh) from 11,287 GWh a year ago.
"The growth in our first quarter sales volume reflects the growing demand for power from across all customer segments with the improving economic prospects," Meralco Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Ronnie Aperocho said.
This month, the company reached "record peak demand in the Meralco franchise area, which exceeded 9,000 MW," he said.
"With red and yellow alerts hoisted over the Luzon grid several times this April, we anticipate a challenging power supply situation throughout this dry season, coincidental with the El Niño phenomenon," Aperocho added.
Meralco said it continued to deliver competitively priced power to contestable customers in the period through its local retail electricity supplier (RES) units MPower, Clark Electric's Cogent, MGen's Global Energy Supply Corp. and two other affiliate retail electricity suppliers namely Vantage Energy and MeridianX.
As of end-March, Meralco said total energy delivered by the RES business stood at 1,568 GWh.
In power generation, Meralco said subsidiary MGen's earnings were tempered by scheduled maintenance outages of certain affiliates, resulting in total energy delivered by MGen decreasing by 11 percent year-on-year to 3,229 GWh.
Meralco's share price on Monday went down by P1.40, or 0.38 percent, to P367 amid a 2.12-percent advance for the Philippine Stock Exchange index.
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