Meralco sees core income rising to P43-B this year

Having posted record sales of roughly 9.0% in the first half and with cash stream from additional generated capacities, power utility giant Manila Electric Company (Meralco) has scaled up its profit goal to P43 billion for the entire year from its initial target of P40 billion.

Meralco Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan emphasized that “due to Meralco’s strong operational and financial performance in the first half of the year, we are prepared to upgrade our initial guidance of P40 billion consolidated core net income (CCNI) to P43 billion CCNI for the full year 2024.”

The company’s ascend into that level of income has already been partly cemented by its P23.207 billion core income posted in the first half of the year, escalating by 21% from last year’s P19.205 billion within comparative six-month period.

Additionally, Meralco’s reported income climbed 26% to P22.441 billion versus P17.853 billion a year ago.

“With the steady growth trajectory of the economy, we are satisfied that Meralco will sustain its robust performance throughout the year,” Pangilinan stressed.

On the company’s highly favorable financial result within January-June stretch this year, Meralco Chief Finance Officer Betty Siy-Yap emphasized that 55% of income came from the regulated power distribution part of their business; while the balance of 45% had been yielded by unregulated business platforms — primarily those on power generation, retail electricity supplier (RES) portfolio and other operating assets and subsidiaries.

Given upturn in the power firm’s profitability, Yap similarly declared dividend payments which would be equivalent to 50% of core earnings per share – or P20.590 per share for core income; and P19.911 per share for reported income.

Beyond the company’s distribution business, Pangilinan noted that Meralco will also
“continue to invest in more generation capacity which will help address, if not eliminate, instances of supply insufficiency in the country’s power grid, and support the growing demand for power.”

He qualified that their plans are “well aligned with the country’s pursuit to develop more energy infrastructure and sustainable energy solutions that can promote energy security that can benefit not just consumers in our franchise area, but also cater to the power needs of our unserved and underserved communities.”

In terms of sales, Meralco Senior Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer Ferdinand O. Geluz stated that consolidated energy sales had logged record uptick of 9% for Meralco and 7% rise for subsidiary Clark Electric Distribution Corp to 26,954 gigawatt-hours (GWh) as against 24,792 GWh in the same first half cycle last year.

He specified that sales had been reinforced by record-demand in May, as volumes breached 5,000 GWh within that month alone – and such had been driven mainly by sales to residential and commercial segments.

“Demand in the Meralco franchise area peaked at 9,323 MW in April, up by 10% from the 8,438 MW peak demand experienced in May of 2023,” the power firm highlighted further.

In the commercial segment, Geluz conveyed that sales volume jumped 10% to 10,068 GWh vis-à-vis  9,162 GWh within comparative period last year; while residential sales expanded 36%; and industrial uptake had gone up by equally strong 26%.