By Leslie Gatpolintan (PNA)
MANILA — Infrastructure conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) reported Wednesday an 8-percent rise in core net income in the first three quarters of 2018, driven by its expanded power portfolio.
MPIC told the local bourse its core profit reached PHP12.2 billion in January to September, from PHP11.3 billion during the same period last year.
Its power business accounted for PHP8.5 billion, or 55 percent of net operating income, backed by the June 2017 purchase of the last 25 percent of Beacon Electric and robust performance of subsidiary, Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).
Toll roads contributed PHP3.3 billion or 21 percent; water shared PHP3 billion (20 percent); the Hospitals Group provided PHP586 million (4 percent); and the Rail, Logistics and Systems Group delivered PHP26 million.
“We’re saying that we think that fourth quarter will be pretty flat, and so you can see our core net income now is about PHP12 billion. And the last quarter added on to that, you will get a number that’s roughly about PHP15 billion,” MPIC chief finance officer David Nicol said in a briefing.
MPIC president and chief executive officer, Jose Ma. K. Lim, said volume growth slowed down in the third quarter due to rising inflation and dampened weather that affected the demand for electricity for residential customers.
“I expect volumes to recover to more normalized levels in the last three months of the year, but more fundamentally, our extreme investment program is leading to rising finance costs,” he said.
