MANILA, Philippines - Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., the toll road subsidiary of Pangilinan-led Metro Pacific Investments Corp., said its core net income rose over a quarter on the back of record traffic volumes in the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX), with this trend likely to continue the rest of the year.

The listed company’s reported net income, however, declined by roughly the same amount to P581.7 million.

“We are just being conservative this year [so] we made certain provisions for potential tax writeoffs. These are non-cash and non-recurring,” said chief finance officer Christopher Lizo in a phone interview on Thursday.

Lizo was referring to a proposed government scheme to impose the value-added tax rule on toll road operators.

Meanwhile, the company’s core net income hit P1.22 billion for the full year 2009, a 24% improvement over the previous year. The company said this was due to higher-than-expected traffic reported by Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC) and the higher contribution of Tollways Management Corp. (TMC).

MNTC holds the concession to operate and maintain Nlex and is 67.1% owned by Metro Pacific Tollways. TMC operates the Nlex for MNTC and has an interim agreement to operate and maintain Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX) and is owned 46.0% by MPTC.

“The strong operational performance of the company was driven by higher toll revenues and further rationalization of costs. The favorable fuel prices, the opening of Sctex as well as our intense marketing efforts and focus on customer service have propelled traffic volume at record highs in 2009,” said Lizo.

“The first month of 2010 has seen traffic continue to increase, which provides us with some optimism about the prospects for the incoming year,” he said.

“With the scheduled completion and opening of Segment 8.1 by May 2010, which will provide motorists another access to Nlex, as well as increased mobility related to the May 2010 election, we are confident that traffic volume for the period will reach new highs,” said Metro Pacific Tollways president Ramoncito Fernandez.

He said the company has already tapped engineering studies for Segments 9 and 10, the roads that connect Nlex to Western Metro Manila, with a view to starting construction next year.

The Board of Directors of Metro Pacific Tollways has also approved the declaration of cash dividends of 15 centavos per share to stockholders as of record date March 5, 2010 and payable on March 22.