Tuesday, May 06, 2008 Meralco bares increase in income
DISTRIBUTION giant Manila Electric Company (Meralco) reported that its net income for the first quarter of 2008 hits P655 million, an increase of 23.2 percent from P532 million in the same period last year.
In a disclosure to the exchange, Meralco said energy sales jumped by 1.9 percent to 6,165 gWh, but this is lower by 3.7 percent as compared to 2006.
Meralco said this is “mainly due to the effect of the Lenten holidays which fell on March this year as opposed to April in 2007.”
The company at the same time admitted that total revenues dropped by 9.5 percent to P43.64 billion as against the P48.20 billion last year as a result of lower average generation and system loss charges.
However, distribution revenues increased to P5.8 billion in the first quarter of 2008 from P5.65 billion in the same period last year or an increment of 2.7 percent.
Capital expenditure for the first quarter of 2008 amounted to P952 million compared to P1.29 billion in the same period last year.
The commercial segment continued to lead sales growth as its consumption increased to 10,021 gwh, higher than the previous year’s four percent, the company explained.
Meralco attributed the rise in their sales to heightened energy sales to Real Estate (11.4 percent) and Private Services (4.9 percent).
“The surge in Real Estate was attributed to the booming domestic property market while the growth in Private Services was due to the increased energy consumption of the Education, Hotels/Restaurant and Business Services subsectors, including Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) services,” it said.
Industrial segment also posted 4.2 percent increase to 7,405 gwh from its 0.2 percent and 1.2 percent growths in 2005 and 2006, respectively.
The addition of 12 new commercial customers with a combined demand of 8.7 megawatts (MWs) to the grid in the first quarter of 2008 also contributed to this increase.
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 and which grew 13.7 percent, 13.2 percent and seven percent, respectively. Fourteen new major industrial customers with a combined demand of 10.4MW to the grid helped increase this segment’s consumption.
Also driving this expansion was the marked increase in electricity consumption of the Construction (22.9 percent), Fabricated Metals (15.1 percent), Beverage (10.4 percent), Plastics (5.2 percent) and Electrical Machinery (4.2 percent) industries.
The increased consumption of the Construction industry was due to the rising demand for space from Retail Trade and BPOs, housing for families of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and increased government infrastructure development.
Likewise, the residential segment also posted improved sales growth, expanding 3.3 percent to 8,655 gwh.
Meralco said “this was a reversal from its 2.2 percent and two percent decline in 2005 and 2006, respectively. The growth in residential sales was mainly due to the significant rise in per capita consumption of customers in the AB bracket (consuming at least 801 kwh per month) by 10 percent and the C bracket (consuming 201 to 800 kwh per month) by six percent.”
At the same tine, Meralco said low inflation rate and stable electricity prices in the period helped push up residential electricity consumption. (MSN/Sunnex)
