MPIC profits surge as units post higher income

Net profits of Pangilinan-led Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC) more than quadrupled to P2.3 billion last year as a result of higher income contribution from its water, toll road, healthcare and power distribution units. MPIC Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said the company had entered "a new historic period of growth." "We are pleased to have strengthened our position as the preeminent infrastructure company in the Philippines, and expect to see this positive performance improving in 2010," he said in a statement on Wednesday. The company’s consolidated net income stood at P526 million in 2008. Its core net profits, which exclude one-time gains, increased almost six times to P2.047 billion from just P347 million in restated income in 2008. "The strong improvement and momentum across all our businesses, including the impact of Manila Electric Co.’s (Meralco) contribution, have driven the impressive growth in our consolidated results for 2009," MPIC President and Chief Executive Jose Ma. K. Lim said. "The significant improvement in core net income this year is attributable to higher contributions from Maynilad Water Services, Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC), the Healthcare Group and Manila Electric Co. (Meralco)," the company said. Maynilad contributed P1.93 billion or 55 percent of total profits, representing the MPIC’s interest in the water utility’s core income. MPTC contributed P1.21 billion or 35 percent of profit from operations, while the firm’s chain of hospitals contributed P174 million or 5 percent of the total. The MPIC’s investments in Meralco in October 2009 added P212 million of equitized core earnings for the three-month period ending on December 31. The MPIC also had nonrecurring, exceptional gains worth P252 million — mostly one-time accounting adjustments made during the year, the largest element being the income from the rate rebasing exercise at Maynilad. Maynilad’s core net income went up by almost two-thirds to P3 billion, while the MPTC’s core net profits grew by almost a quarter to P1.22 billion last year. Unit Medical Doctors posted a consolidated core income of P384 million, more than three-quarters higher than a year earlier. Medical Doctors owns the Makati Medical Center and operates the Colinas Verdes Hospital Managers Corp. and Cardinal Santos Medical Center. The MPIC and Pilipino Telephone Corp. (Piltel) on Monday agreed to combine their shareholdings in Meralco into Rightlight Holdings, Inc., which will be renamed Beacon Electric Asset Holdings, Inc. The consolidation will make the unit the single biggest shareholder of the country’s largest power distributor, and will allow Beacon Electric to access debt financing for any additional purchases of Meralco shares, the MPIC said. "Furthermore, the combined structure provides greater security of their respective Meralco investments and assures the group of significant influence over the affairs of Meralco," it added. — N.P. Aquino, GMANews.TV