Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) on Monday reported a 26 percent jump in first-half net income to P23.12 billion from only P18.35 billion in the same period last year.
Meralco revenue rose 6 percent to P237.48 billion from P224.82 billion.
The power distributor traced the growth to higher sales of its distribution business and to greater availability of its subsidiary power generation units.
Consolidated energy sales in the first half were up 9 percent to 26,954 gigawatt hours (GWh) from the previous year’s 24,792 GWh.
Meralco said its six-month sales performance was boosted by second-quarter sales hitting a new record, with volume breaching the 5,000 GWh-level in May alone, driven largely by double-digit growth in the residential and commercial segments.
The company said the commercial segment accounted for 37 percent of the energy sales mix while residential and industrial accounted for 36 percent and 26 percent, respectively.
Meralco customer count for the period totaled 7.9 million, a 3 percent increase from last year’s 7.7 million.
Manuel V. Pangilinan, Meralco chairman and chief executive officer, said that as a consequence of strong operational and financial performance in the first half, the enterprise is upgrading the initial guidance of P40 billion consolidated core net income this year to P43 billion.
“With the steady growth trajectory of the economy, we are satisfied that Meralco will sustain its robust performance throughout the year. Beyond the core distribution business, we 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,” Pangilinan said.
