MPIC core earnings up 13% to P6 billion

MANILA, Philippines — Metro Pacific Investments Corp., the listed tollways and infrastructure conglomerate chaired by tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan, reported a 13 percent growth in its first half core net income to P6 billion.

Consolidated reported net income surged by 243 percent percent to P10.4 billion, arising from the gain recognized from the sale of Global Business Power and Don Muang Tollways.

With the latest results, Pangilinan said the company is confident of hitting P12 billion for the full year despite the Delta variant and the new round of stricter quarantine measures from Aug. 6 to 20 in the National Capital Region.

“Despite threats of recurring stringent quarantine measures, we are confident that our core net income guidance of at least P12 billion for full year 2021 is still attainable,” Pangilinan said.

He said the volumes are expected to continue recovering and the company is more prepared now for the latest round of lockdowns.

“We are seeing that people are no longer letting the virus run their lives and are able to bounce back more quickly than we did during the start of the pandemic. As such, we expect that the volumes of our core businesses will continue to recover towards the end of the year with the continuous inoculation efforts for the rest of the population,” Pangilinan said.

The growth in the company’s first half core net income was driven largely by improved traffic on its toll roads through Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. and higher volume of electricity sold through Manila Electric Co.

MPIC president and CEO Jose Ma. K. Lim said the company is encouraged by the pace of growth across its core businesses.

MPIC’s businesses include tollroads, infrastructure, hospitals, water service and power distribution among others.

Contribution from power accounted for P5.4 billion or 63 percent of the total while toll roads contributed P1.9 billion or 22 percent.

The water business accounted for P1.4 billion or 17 percent while other businesses, mainly Light Rail and Logistics posted an overall loss of P294 million owing to the continuing impact of the pandemic on the ridership of LRT-1 and the ongoing recalibration of warehousing operations. This was partially offset by the hospital group’s contribution of P142 million.

Core net income for the second quarter rose 82 percent to P3.5 billion.

“This acceleration of growth reflects an improvement in performance notwithstanding the continued imposition of varying levels of quarantine across the country, and was partially augmented by the impact of the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives (CREATE) Law which lowered income tax rates to 25 percent from 30 percent,” MPIC said in a regulatory filing.