Meralco core income up 3% to P20.2 billion

By Myrna M. Velasco – February 26, 2018, 10:00 PM
from Manila Bulletin

Generally buoyed by brisk sales, the consolidated core income of power utility giant Manila Electric Company (Meralco) had climbed 3.0-percent in 2017 to P20.2 billion from the previous year’s P19.6 billion

The same trajectory had been logged for the company’s reported net income with 6.0-percent jump to P20.4 billion from the year-ago level of P19.2 billion.

The company’s electricity revenues last year had likewise been on uptrend at the rate of 10-percent to P275.2 billion; while consolidated distribution revenues had gone up 5.0-percent to P59.6 billion.

With highly favorable financial performance last year, the utility firm had been prompted to declare core earnings per share of R17.93; while reported earnings had been at P18.09 per share.

Meralco Chief Financial Officer Betty Siy-Yap thus announced that the firm’s board of directors approved final cash dividend of R8.065 per share to all shareholders of record as of March 28 this year – and payable in April 25.

The company explained that such “consists of a final regular cash dividend of P4.478 per share and a special cash dividend of P3.587 per share.”

As noted by the utility firm, “2017 proved to be another strong year for Meralco in the commercial, operating, and financial reforms.”

On its sales, it emphasized that despite the cooler temperatures in the first four months of last year, consolidated energy sales were still at a hefty growth of 5.0-percent to 42,102 gigawatt hours – with Meralco breaching 41,000 GWH mark at 41,258GWh and subsidiary Clark Electric Distribution Corporation logging 574 GWh in sales.

Meralco President Oscar S. Reyes emphasized that it was the first time last year that sales had been exceeding 3,000 GWh level on a monthly basis – with the highest recorded in June 2017 at 3,835GWh; and the lowest was in March at 3,039 GWh.