Health crisis cuts Megawide income in January-march

Megawide Construction Corp. said it had a net income of P206 million for the first quarter of the year ending March, some 27 percent lower than last year’s P282 million.

“we are building on the strong performance of all our segments for the full year of 2019 and the first quarter of this year. Moving forward, while we anticipate challenges created by the Covid-19 pandemic, we are also primed to take advantage of the new opportunities it has created,” said edgar Saavedra, Megawide chairman and CEO.

Revenues for the quarter rose 42 percent to P5.06 billion, from last year’s P3.56 billion, mainly on the recovery of its construction business.

The construction business continued to rebound as revenues increased 52 percent yearon-year to P3.9 billion, despite the imposition of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) across Luzon in the second half of March, it said.

The global onset of Covid-19 affected both international and domestic travel early in the year with the imposition of travel restrictions. as a result, airport revenues declined by 10 percent to P803 million for the quarter as total passenger volume fell by 21 percent to 2.4 million. domestic segment fell 16 percent at 1.7 million passengers while the international segment declined 29 percent to 742,000 passengers.

The landport delivered P287 million in revenues for the quarter, despite the suspension of terminal operations under the enhanced community quarantine guidelines towards the second half of March.

The paraña que integrated transport exchange served as a public service convergence point for free transportation for healthcare workers and front liners fighting c ovid -19 around metro manila.

“The new normal emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic presents several challenges for our businesses yet unlocks exciting opportunities in construction and infrastructure development, which we are in a very strong position to line up for,” said Saavedra.

“in the construction segment, the government’s infrastructure acceleration under the modified ‘Build, Build, Build’ program will be very attractive, considering our fully-integrated EPC [engineering, procurement, construction] capabilities, engineering technologies like precast and track record in PPPS [public-private partnerships].”

For 2019, Megawide's income plunged 45 percent to P1.04 billion, from the previous year's P1.89 billion. Revenues rose 24 percent to P19.78 billion from the previous P15.99 billion.