Anchoring it mainly on the electricity demand slump this year because of the pandemic, power utility giant Manila Electric Company (Meralco) is targeting a leaner core net income of P21 billion this year, which is roughly 10 to 11-percent lower versus last year’s P24 billion scale of profitability.

In the first three quarters this year, the company’s core income dipped 15-percent to P15.727 billion from a relatively robust level of P18.453 billion in the same period last year.

For the utility firm’s reported net income, this was substantially down by 39-percent to P11.342 billion from the year-ago level of P18.423 billion in the same nine-month stretch.

Meralco Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan noted that despite the decline in income in the last nine months, “we expect fourth quarter to be better than the second and third quarters given the rising volume of power sold.”

He similarly announced that the company will still retain its 60-percent dividend payment for the year, and that is estimated to be more than P13 billion payout to shareholders out of core earnings for 2020.

 And as the Philippine economy gains traction on the recovery track, Pangilinan emphasized “given a

slightly more optimistic picture for 2021, we do expect the core income of Meralco to rise next year.”
He qualified the utility firm has not done actual review of prospective performance for next year, “but it should be better than the P21 plus billion that is expected for 2020.”

Meralco President Ray C. Espinosa, for his part, noted that consolidated energy sales volume from January to September had declined by 7.0-percent – and that hovered to 32,539 gigawatt hours in the first nine months, including volumes contributed by its subsidiary Clark Electric Distribution Corporation.

The company, nevertheless, hinted that “with the gradual easing under the GCQ (gradual community quarantine), industrial and commercial sales volume show signs of recovery although residential sales volume continue to account for a larger share of total volumes.”

Espinosa said “even as we deal with the pandemic, Meralco continues to pursue opportunities for revenue expansion and growth.”

He qualified that with the company’s full force capacity, “we are quickening the pace of service connection and energization to fulfill new customer demands throughout our franchise area,” with him stressing that “we shall remain a steadfast partner of our stakeholders in keeping the lights on.”