Metro Pacific 9-month net income rises 23% to P9.5 billion

Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) reported a double-digit growth in earnings in the first nine months of 2021, reflecting an improved business environment despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

At a virtual press briefing on Wednesday, MPIC president and CEO Jose Ma. Lim said that the company’s January to September core net income stood at P9.5 billion, up 23% from P7.7 billion in the same period in 2020.

In the third quarter, core earnings rose 44% to P3.5 billion, reflecting “an improvement in performance notwithstanding the continued imposition of varying levels of quarantine across the country to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and was partially augmented by the impact of the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Law which lowered corporate income tax rates from 30% to 25%," he said. 

According to Lim, the Pangilinan-led infrastructure conglomerate’s bottom line also rose as “mobility restrictions continued to be eased and the ongoing vaccination program enabled more industries to reopen.”

MPIC’s power business contributed the lion’s share of the earnings or 64% (P8.4 billion).

It was followed by toll roads, accounting for P2.7 billion or 20%, and water contributing P2.2 billion or 17%.

Other businesses, mainly light rail and logistics, generated an overall loss of P384 million owing to the capacity limitation on the ridership of LRT-1 and the discontinuance of warehousing operations, respectively. 

These losses were partially offset by MPIC’s hospital group’s contribution of P237 million.

“The steady pace of growth that we are seeing across our core businesses has been very encouraging. We anticipate these trends to continue now that more commercial establishments are able to re-open with the relaxation of mobility restrictions,” Lim said. 

“Economic activity has historically peaked during the holiday season and so we hope to end the year on a much more positive disposition compared to last year,” he added. — VBL, GMA News