Conglomerate Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) on Wednesday said its core income in the first quarter rose 23 percent to P3.1 billion, from last year’s P2.5 billion.
The company said it benefitted from continued economic recovery and intensified election-related activities in the country.
Toll road traffic is now close to pre-pandemic levels, and power consumption has increased as more industries ramped up their operating capacity, the company said.
Contribution from operations increased 14 percent to P4.3 billion, with power still contributing more than half to P2.5 billion, followed by toll roads at P1.2 billion, water at P600 million and its other business of mainly hospitals and light rail at P76 million.
Following a series of debt refinancing and re-rating activities that were implemented last year, MPIC said it is now enjoying the benefits of a significant reduction in its average interest rates, evidenced by the 11 percent decline in net interest costs for the first quarter.
“Understanding this interconnectedness is a crucial lesson we have learned from the pandemic: that we need to come together to work out how we can progress from a crisis; that our development as a business is tied to the advancement of others. Such progress is as significant as profit and is therefore linked to creating value for all. In other words, that our progress is yours as well,” MPIC Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said.
Pangilinan said MPIC is keen on buying the stake of the Ayala Group in LRT-1, but the deal may happen after the elections.
Ayala, including one more group, have both signified their interest to divest from LRT-1.
“A great deal of it will depend on the outcome of elections because we need to understand what the new President might do in respect of LRT-1 because we have pending applications for tariff adjustments, tariff increases for LRT -1 which have not been given since the concession was given some time in 2015,” he said.
“So it’s been seven years (since) we’ve spent quite a bit of money to rehabilitate the existing system of LRT1.”