Meralco profit grows 23% to P655M in quarter

By Earl Paolo Jaculbe

05/06/2008

Manila Electric Co.’s (Meralco) profit in the first quarter rose 23.2 percent to P655 million from P532 million a year ago.

Meralco attributed the profit growth to sales increasing 1.9 percent to 6,156 gigawatthour (gWh) during the period.

Capital expenditure in the first quarter amounted to P952 million compared to P1.29 billion in the same period last year.

Distribution revenues increased to P5.80 billion in the frist quarter 2008 from P5.65 billion in the same period last year.

Total expenses went down by 9.8 percent to P42.76 billion from P4.74 billion last year. Purchased power cost (PPC) declined by 11.2 percent to P37.95 billion from P42.72 billion last year. Unrecoverable PPC dropped by 24.2 percent from P648 million to P491 million.

The commercial segment for the first quarter continued to lead in energy sales growth, increasing 4.1 percent to 2,388 gWh. The expansion was propelled by the transport, storage and communication, real estate and trade sectors which rose 11.3 percent, 8.7 percent and 7.4 percent respectively.

Sales to the industrial segment grew 1.9 percent to 1,795 gWh for the period. Growth in this segment was led by beverage, transport equipment manufacturing and basic metal which all grew 13.7 percent, 13.2 percent and 7 percent respectively.

Earnings per share for this year’s first quarter rose 6.25 percent to P0.68 from P0.64 last year.

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