Power retailer Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said Monday it booked an 11-percent increase in consolidated core net income to P11.172 billion in the first quarter of 2025 from P10.083 billion a year ago.
“Our first-quarter results reflect a strong start in 2025, with solid financial performance across the business portfolio,” Meralco senior vice president and chief finance officer Betty Sy-Yap said during the company’s first-quarter results briefing.
“The CCNI contribution of our regulated or distribution business was from the 2 percent growth in consolidated energy sales volume for Meralco and Clark Electric and Shin Clark, to 12,493 gigawatt hours from last year’s 12,307 gigawatt hours,” she said.
Meralco chairman Manuel Pangilinnan did not give a full-year CCNI forecast, but said the company targets a “low double-digit growth.”
“[It’s] gonna be tough year overall for the economy. The World Bank reduced forecast of Philippine gross domestic product which is sort of an indicator that it will be a tough year for a number of reasons. Probably still early days but target is to produce a low double-digit growth in the core net income,” Pangilinan said.
The World Bank, in its East Asia and the Pacific Economic Update for April 2025, reduced its 2025 growth forecast for the Philippines to 5.3 percent from an earlier estimate of 6.1 percent.
Meralco’s consolidated distribution utility sales volume reached 12,493 gigawatt-hours during the period, owing to the newly-energized accounts that drove growth in the residential segment.
The commercial segment accounted for the largest share of the sales mix at 38 percent, which closed the quarter with 4,744 GWh of energy sales volume, up by 1 percent from 4,679 GWh.
The residential sector also grew 3 percent to 4,257 GWh from 4,144 GWh, with the energization of new residential customers that drove consumption growth and contributed 95 GWh in the first quarter. Sales volume from the industrial segment rose marginally to 3,456 GWh from 3,448 GWh.
Sy-Yap said that for the unregulated businesses, the highest CCNI contribution came from the strong performance of Meralco PowerGen Corp.’s power generation units, increasing by 25 percent due to stable plant availability, sustained revenue generation from the reserve market and contribution of Chromite Gas Holdings Inc. (Chromite Gas) beginning February this year.
With a net saleable capacity of 4,953.3 MW across its diversified portfolio in the Philippines and Singapore as of end-March, MGen delivered 5,294 GWh of energy which was 64 percent higher than in the same period last year.
Meralco’s power generation business contributed P3.4 billion from power plants in the Philippines and in Singapore, accounting for 31 percent of CCNI, while the DU business captured the largest share of 60 percent or P 6.7 billion.
The retail electricity service business and non-electricity businesses brought in a combined P1.1 billion or 9 percent of CCNI.
Meralco’s consolidated reported net income also increased 8.9 percent to P10.4 billion in the first three months compared to the P9.597 billion generated in the same period in 2024.
By the end of March 2025, Meralco’s consolidated customer count was at 8.1 million, up 3 percent from 7.9 million in the first quarter of 2024.
