Metro Pacific Investments Corp. on Monday reported core income rising 33 percent to P9.9 billion from last year’s P7.5 billion.
June Cheryl A. Cabal-Revilla, chief financial, chief sustainability and chief risk officer said the company may exceed its full year target of P16.1 billion as its core units are all performing well.
“I think our highest core income ever was at P15.6 billion, pre- pandemic level. So at P16.1 billion, which is our budget target for the year, we’re likely to exceed given the trend of our core businesses which are also exceeding their targets,” Revilla said.
According to Revilla, second-quarter outcomes have proven high the past five years except for a one-off blip in 2020 with the pandemic.
Operating revenue grew 21 percent over six months to P29.37 billion from a previous P24.28 billion.
MPIC’s holdings delivered a 27 percent increase in contribution from operations driven by the strong performance of its power generation business and higher water tariff of its water concession.
Of the company’s core businesses, power had the largest share of P9 billion or 72 percent of net operating income while toll roads and water contributed P2.7 billion and P2.3 billion, respectively.
Net interest costs declined 3 percent due to the strategic rerating and refinancing of expensive debt the past two years, notwithstanding the rising interest rate environment at present.
Attributable net income over six months rose 8 percent to P10.2 billion versus P9.5 billion last year which benefited from the acquisition of Landco Pacific Corp.
“Regarding our petition for voluntary delisting, the company’s board of directors and senior management echo the bidders’ observation that the intrinsic value of MPIC’s core investments in infrastructure in the Philippines has not been fully reflected in MPIC’s share price for some time. The tender offer and successful delisting will allow MPIC’s minority shareholders to realize a significant premium over the historical share prices of MPIC,” he said.
The tender offer period to take MPIC into private hands began 9 August and will run until 7 September, with target settlement date 19 September. It needed to buy at least 95 percent of the shares to be tendered before the delisting proceeds.
