MANILA – Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC) has continued to extend its full support to the government amid the challenges caused by the pandemic as it ramps up expansion and enables economic growth from infrastructure development.
“This meant keeping the lights on, delivering clean water supply, enabling mobility and transportation, and providing excellent healthcare, all down to the commitment and skills of our workforce,” the company said in a statement Wednesday.
MPIC chairman Manuel Pangilinan said his group mobilized all its available resources and personnel to support the government’s fight against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) to ensure the health, safety and continued livelihood of its employees, prioritize service continuity, and help uplift communities through various positive impact programs.
“There is still much work that needs to be done to help our country recover so we will continue to proactively partner with the government and offer our hand wherever needed –from the handling and storage of vaccines, to increasing Covid-19 bed capacity in our hospitals, and the conversion of our facilities into quarantine centers– we are now studying how we can be instrumental in the development of our own vaccines and help better equip our nation for a crisis such as this,” he said.
MPIC reported a 26-percent decline in consolidated core net income for the first quarter of 2021 to PHP2.5 billion, driven largely by economic contraction amid the Covid-19 pandemic which resulted in reduced toll road traffic, light rail services, and commercial and industrial demand for water and power.
The first-quarter earnings decline of 26 percent contrasts with the 34-percent full-year drop in 2020, indicating a gradual improvement in performance despite the continued imposition of varying levels of quarantine across the country.
“Although first quarter core earnings are still down year-over-year, we are expecting to benefit from the country’s gradual economic recovery towards the latter part of the year driven by the government’s vaccination program and the impact of the CREATE (Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises) law. This outlook serves as the foundation of our core income guidance of at least PHP12 billion for full year 2021,” Pangilinan added.
The recently signed CREATE law aided the company’s first-quarter performance with its lowering of income tax rates from 30 percent to 25 percent. This is retroactive from July 1, 2020
“This law eases the company’s future tax liabilities and consequently allows reallocation of resources to further improve operational efficiencies,” it said. (PR)
