MPIC income nearly doubles in Q1

MANILA, Philippines - Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), the local flagship of Hong Kong-based conglomerate First Pacific Co. Ltd., jacked up its net income by 91 percent to P1.57 billion in the first quarter this year, buoyed by the robust performance of its water distribution and hospital businesses.

Consolidated core net income grew 40 percent to P1.59 billion as operating revenues increased 32 percent to P6.67 billion on higher contributions from Maynilad Water Services Corp and the Hospital Group, as well as increased shareholdings in Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).

MPIC chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said he is optimistic the company can sustain its strong growth with its core net earnings seen hitting P6 billion by the end of the year.

“The strong results for the first quarter reflect significant service level improvements and efficiency gains for all our operating companies. We are striving to accelerate momentum in our new projects,” Pangilinan said.

Jose Ma. K. Lim, president and chief executive officer of MPIC, said

Maynilad accounted for P862 million or 46 percent of the aggregate contribution to MPIC’s core net income. The figure is 22 percent higher than the P707-million contribution the year before.

Meralco chipped in 28 percent of total while Metro Pacific Tollways pumped in 19 percent. The Hospital Group, on the other hand, contributed P124 million or seven percent of total.

MPIC chief financial officer David Nicol said the firm has set a capital spending of P27 billion this year, bulk of which or P11.9 billion will be channeled to Meralco. Around P8.3 billion will go to Maynilad, P4 billion for the parent company, P1.4 billion for the Hospital Group and P1.3 billion for the tollways.

Groupwide capex is P73 billion, which includes investments in telecommunications giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (P38 billion) and Philex Mining (P7.7 billion).

Maynilad president Ricky Vargas said the company is looking at possible sources of water to expand the facility’s capacity to 300 million liters per day.

Among the possible areas it may tap into is Pampanga.

Augie Palisoc, head of the Hospital Group, said it continues to scout for possible acquisitions across the country to further beef up its portfolio which currently includes the upscale Alabang-based Asian Hospital, Makati Medical Center, Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan and Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Sta. Mesa. It also has investments in Riverside Medical Center in Bacolod and Davao Doctors Hospital in Mindanao.

For its infrastructure projects, MPIC is pursuing discussions with the Department of Transportation and Communications with respect to its proposal to improve the operations and reliability of the Metro Rail Transit.

Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. president Ramoncito Fernandez said they are awaiting the formal awarding of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway. It plans to invest P325 million to integrate SCETex with NLEX to facilitate seamless travel between the two expressways.