The loss-making subsidiaries of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) reported generating profit in the first three months this year, boosting the likelihood for the power distributor to recover from last year’s losses.
“The expansion of our subsidiaries both power and non-power alike, is one of the growth pillars of Meralco’s business prospects. There have been instances last year when certain entities incurred losses as in the case of Global Business Power (GBP). With respect to GBP, I think some of the plants incurred losses in part because of the impact of typhoon Odette in the Visayas area and the fixed rate contracts at the height of the global fuel price increases I think alluded to by the Ukraine war,” said Manuel Pangilinan, Meralco chairman, at the company’s virtual annual stockholders’ meeting on Tuesday.
Pangilinan said Meralco is looking at ways to turn around the performance of the plants as these already contributed positive cash flow in the company as of the first quarter of the year.
He assured shareholders of “significant upticks in the profits of the generation part of the business” and that 2023 operations should prove “a good year for Meralco as a whole”.
In April, Meralco announced a 40 percent increase in core net income in the first three months totaling P9 billion versus the year ago of only P6.4 billion.
Revenue also jumped 23 percent to P105.64 billion from P85.9 billion, attributed to higher volumes of energy sold.
Consolidated energy sales for the quarter was up by 2 percent to 11,287 gigawatt hours (GWh) from the previous year’s 11,069 GWh, due to the sustained growth of the commercial segment as economic activities stabilized towards pre-pandemic levels.
Meralco’s customer count also reached 7.67 million, a 3 percent increase against last year’s 7.46 million.
Peak demand hit 7,725 megawatts (MW), down 3 percent from the previous 7,816 MW.
