Meralco bullish on 2023 net income growth–Pangilinan

By Lenie Lectura @llectura

“We expect profits to be record high for full year; it’s just a question of how much. Certainly, much way ahead than what we reported in 2022. definitely, ours will be north of P30 billion for full year of 2023,” said Meralco Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan during a press conference held Monday.

In 2022, Meralco’s consolidated core net income stood at P27.1 billion. during the company’s first half financial and operating results, Meralco reported a 36-percent increase in net income to P17.9 billion from P13.1 billion in the same period a year ago.

Core profit, meanwhile, stood at P19.2 billion. The figures are 47-percent higher than P13.1 billion realized in the same period last year, driven mainly by the 186-percent increase in the contribution of the power generation business.

Revenues at end-June this year went up by 13 percent to P224.8 billion from P199.6 billion last year, mainly due to the effect of higher fuel prices on pass-through charges of the distribution utilities and energy fee of the non-renewable power generation plants and the depreciation of the peso against the US dollar. The company also attributed the rise in revenues to the increase in spot prices and energy purchases from the Wholesale electricity Spot Market (W eSM) and the combined impact of the 3-percent growth in volumes distributed and slightly higher average distribution rate. e n ergy sales volumes in the first half rose by 3 percent to 24,792 gigawatt hours (g W h) from 23,968 g W h. Monthly sales volume breached the 4,000- gW h level since a pril and reached a high of 4,643 g W h in June.

Higher temperature and humidity during the dry season drove the increase in demand for electricity from the residential segment while the continuing recovery and growth in the economy were drivers of commercial segment sales.

Sales mix also continued to shift towards prepandemic levels, with the commercial segment accounting for a bigger 37 percent share. The share