Economic boom favors Meralco

We should see a significant uptick in the profits of the generation part of the business. To allay your concerns, I think it will be a good year for Meralco as a whole

Power distributor Manila Electric Co. expects its generation business to post higher contributions in its bottom line this year, a projection that is likely to make 2023 a fruitful year for the country’s largest power distributor.

“We should see a significant uptick in the profits of the generation part of the business. To allay your concerns, and I think it will be a good year for Meralco as a whole,” Meralco chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said during the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting on Tuesday.

Pangilinan also noted that a marching order has been issued to the Meralco management to reverse the losses incurred by the company’s generation arms in the past years.

Meralco’s subsidiary Meralco PowerGen Corp. or MGen fully owns Global Business Power Corp. or GBP — an independent power producer in the Visayas region with a presence in Mindanao and the Mindoro islands.

In 2022, MGen already managed to deliver a higher contribution to Meralco’s overall profit on the back of the strong performance of Pacific Light Power Pte. Ltd. and San Buenaventura Power Ltd.

Increase impressive

“The P5.4-billion core net income from MGen last year is an impressive increase of more than 346 percent versus 2021. Reported net income likewise improved by 21 percent to its highest ever level of P28.4 billion,” Meralco president Ray Espinosa cited in his report during the meeting.

During the first quarter of the year, Meralco logged a P9-billion consolidated core net income, up 40 percent from P6.4 billion in the same period a year ago.

The company attributed the growth to the sustained growth in energy sales and higher earnings of its power generation business from projects locally and in Singapore.

Consolidated revenues, on the other hand, grew by 23 percent to P105.6 billion from P85.9 billion in the same quarter a year ago due to higher pass-through and generation charges as well as the increase in volumes sold.

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF FPH FPH board re-elected Members of the board of First Philippine Holdings Corporation were re-elected by stockholders for another one-year term during the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting and elections on 29 May. They are led by chairman and CEO Federico Lopez (fifth from left) and president and COO Francis Giles Puno (fourth from left). Also in photo are (from left) Mercedes Lopez-Vargas, Roberta Feliciano, Emmanuel Antonio Singson, Richard Tantoco, Benjamin Ernesto Lopez, Stephen CuUnjieng, Francisco Ed. Lim, David Chua and Jaime Ayala. Returning to their company seats are Miguel Ernesto Lopez, Anita Quitain, Rizalina Mantaring and Cirilo Noel (not in photo).