Meralco earnings jump 14% to P11.97 B

Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said its first semester net earnings rose by 14 percent to P11.97 billion, driven by higher electricity sales volume.

In a financial report to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Meralco attributed the strong financial performance to contained operating and maintenance expenses, the adjustment of provisions for impairment of certain receivables and foreign exchange adjustments to reflect the effect of the peso’s devaluation against the US dollar.

Total revenues grew to P150.5 billion from P141 billion last year due to the seven percent increase in volume of energy sold and the increase in generation charge brought about by higher fuel prices and the weakening of the peso against the US dollar.

Consolidated electric rev- enues, which accounted for 98 percent of total revenues, went up by seven percent to P146.9 billion.

Non-electric revenues, which made up three percent of the total revenues, remained stable, rising five percent to P4.7 billion.

Non-electric revenues con- sist largely of revenues from subsidiaries’ operations.

Meralco’s consumer base increased by almost five percent to 6.5 million by the end of June 2018, as new connections across all customer classes rose by 294,000 year-on-year or an average of 23,000 new customers per month.

New residential connections were the highest at 135,000 while commercial connections reached 7,000.

Consolidated costs and expenses amounted to P136.86 billion, higher than the P127.5 billion recorded in the same period last year.