MANILA – Officials of Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC) consider 2021 as a recovery year for the company and a return to pre-pandemic earnings performance is seen within one to two years.
In a virtual briefing Wednesday, MPIC chief finance officer (CFO) June Cheryl Cabal-Revilla said they aim to post a PHP12 billion income this year, similar to the 2020 level profit guidance.
This is lower than the record-high PHP15.6 billion that the holdings company registered in 2019.
“The P15-billion level of core income maybe (achieved) next year or in the next two years,” she said.
Last year, the company registered a 34 percent drop in core net income to PHP10.2 billion due to lower gains from its toll road, light rail, power, and water segments.
For one, the share of toll roads, through the Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation (MPTC), to total income contracted to just 16 percent of the total last year from 25 percent in 2019.
Of the total, toll roads contributed PHP2.445 billion from PHP5.236 billion in the previous year.
The bulk of the income was accounted for by power, or the Manila Electric Company (Meralco), at PHP10.5 billion, or 69 percent of the total.
The water segment, through Maynilad, shared in PHP3.1 billion or 20 percent while other businesses like hospitals, light rail, and logistics, posted losses amounting to PHP709 million.
The weak performance of the over-all business was attributed to the quarantine restrictions imposed by the government to address the spread of the coronavirus disease.
During the same briefing, MPIC President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jose Ma. Lim said the recovery of the company’s earnings leans primarily on the domestic economy’s performance.
“If vaccines are here I think the confidence of people to go out and do what their normal activities are will go back to normal levels. That’s why for 2021, we expect it to be a transitional year,” he said.
Lim said they are hopeful that recovery will transpire this year for them to get back to their pre-pandemic performance by around next year.
“We expect that we will be on recovery level for our tollways and light rail,” he added. (PNA)
