By Victor V. Saulon, Sub-Editor
MANILA Electric Co. (Meralco) grew its core net income by 13.2% to P6.72 billion in the second quarter, in part brought about by the minimal weather disturbance and lower inflation, company officials said on Monday.
“The year started slow with energy sales volume growing only by 2% in the first quarter. However, the second quarter picked up as shown by an 8% increase in volume,” said Betty C. Siy-Yap, Meralco senior vice-president and chief finance officer, during the company’s briefing to announce its first-half operating and financial results.
Including one-time items, reported net income slipped by 4.9% to P6.34 billion.
In the first half, core net income rose by 14% to P12.32 billion, while reported profit was flat at 0.3% to P12.01 billion.
With the period’s performance, Meralco Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said he expects 2019 to be a better year compared to last year in terms of core profit.
“I would say at least P23 [billion] siguro this year to be safe,” he told reporters.
Last year, Meralco’s core net income rose 10.9% to P22.41 billion, driven by the 5% increase in volume of energy distributed, higher financing income from the funds deployed due to the improved yields, recognition of service fees, among others.
Ms. Siy-Yap said the energy sales increase was brought about largely by the increase in average temperature in the first half compared with a year ago, “and also due to very minimal weather disturbance and no prolonged power interruptions other than the MLD or manual load drops.”
“With an efficient energy sourcing and highly dependable Meralco network plus significantly lower inflation, the lowest recorded since August of 2017, which boosted consumer confidence,” she said.
Consolidated revenues in the first half was at P165 billion, 10% higher compared with the level in the previous year.
“Revenues for both quarters registered higher growth rates than sales volume brought about largely by higher generation charge with increase in prices in the wholesale electricity spot market and the weakening of the peso versus the US dollar,” Ms. Siy-Yap said.
Volume of energy sales during the semester was at 22,823 gigawatt-hours (GWh), up 5% compared with the 21,665 GWh a year ago. Meralco also reported its costs and expenses to have expanded by 9% to P149.6 billion.
The total number of billed customers rose to 6.7 million as of June 30, or a year-on-year growth of more than 4%.
Energy sales grew across all customer segments, Meralco said, but overall, the residential segment dominated both average consumption in gigawatt-hours and end-use installation count.
In a statement issued during the briefing, Mr. Pangilinan said the power plant in Mauban, Quezon of the utility’s subsidiary Meralco PowerGen Corp. had been synchronized to the Luzon transmission grid.
“We are happy to announce the successful synchronization to the grid of the 455 MW (megawatt net) San Buenaventura (Power Ltd. Co.) supercritical coal-fired power plant during the second quarter and are even more encouraged with its achievement of supercritical pressure and full load output in May, as we look forward to its full commercial operations later in the year,” he said.
On Monday, shares in the company slipped by 0.80% to close at P372 each.
