MANILA – Despite weaker earnings from several business units, Lopez-led energy conglomerate First Philippine Holdings Corp. (FPHC) saw third-quarter profits soar almost fivefold thanks to the sale of a portion of its interest in Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) to businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan in July.

In its financial statement, FPHC said profits registered during the July-to-September period jumped 394 percent to P7.48 billion, mainly on the P7.23-billion non-recurring gain from the Meralco sale.

This also brings the company’s nine-month profits up 126 percent to P11.2 billion from the same period last year.

The figure, however, was “reduced by the combined effect of lower income posted by Energy Development Corp. [EDC], higher finance costs, mark-to-market losses on derivative transactions, and absence of income from tollways operations,” said FPHC in a statement.

The company noted that revenues for the period declined 6 percent to P43.5 billion as electricity sales, which account for 84 percent of the total, declined by a tenth due to lower average gas prices and lower dispatch of its gas plants. 

FPHC’s power generation subsidiary First Gen Corp. likewise disclosed that net income for the first three quarters fell 85 percent to $7 million on account of its geothermal associate EDC.

EDC’s profits fell by almost half to P1.38 billion which it attributed to the P2.96-billion one-time writedown of net deferred tax assets due to the reduced corporate income tax rate.

FPHC also reported higher finance costs which had risen by 17 percent to P5.3 billion. Income from discontinued operations includes over P700 million from First Philippine Infrastructure Inc., which was sold to another Pangilinan-controlled firm, Metro Pacific Investments Corp., last year.

Last July 14, FPHC, through First Philippine Utilities Corp., sold a 20 percent Meralco stake to Pilipino Telephone Corp., a unit of Pangilinan-led Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT).

The deal, worth P20.07 billion, reduced the Lopezes ownership in the power distributor to 13.4 percent from the previous 33 percent.

Early this month, Metro Pacific secured half or 6.7 percent of FPHC’s remaining Meralco shares at P300 apiece through a call option. If Metro Pacific proceeds with the deal, which will expire on March 31, it will have to pay FPHC P22.4 billion.

abs-cbnNEWS.com is the online news department of ABS-CBN Interactive Inc., a subsidiary of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. ABS-CBN and First Philippine Holdings Corp. are both part of the Lopez Group of Companies.