The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) expects its power generation business to recover this year amid concerns raised by stakeholders on losses incurred last year by its subsidiaries.
“The expansion of our subsidiaries both power and non-power alike, is one of the growth pillars of Meralco’s business prospects. There have been instances last year when certain entities incurred losses as in the case of Global Business Power (GBP). With respect to GBP, I think some of the plants incurred losses in part because of the impact of typhoon Odette in the Visayas area and the fixed rate contracts at the height of the global fuel price increases I think alluded to by the Ukraine war,” said Manuel Pangilinan, Meralco chairman, during the company’s virtual annual stockholders’ meeting yesterday.
Pangilinan said Meralco is looking at ways to turn around the performance of the plants as these contributed positive cash flow in the company as of the first quarter of the year.
“We should see a significant uptick in the profits of generation part of the business and we saw that in this morning’s board meeting where the results of the generation business were reported to the board. It will be a good year for the generation business so we need to allay your concerns and in general, a good year for Meralco as a whole,” Pangilinan said. – Jed Macapagal
