MANILA - Lopez-owned power conglomerate First Philippine Holdings Corp. (FPHC) reported strong profits for the first 9 months of the year, owing to extraordinary gains from the sale of a portion of its stake in Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).

FPHC posted a net income of P7.8 billion for January to September 2009, a reversal of the P156-million net loss it booked for the same period in 2008.

The company attributed the turnaround to one-time gains from the sale of its 20% stake in power distributor Meralco to the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) group in July. The sale amounted to P7.2 billion.

Early this month, FPHC also decided to sell 6.7% or half of its remaining 13.4% Meralco stake to the PLDT group. The P22.4-billion transaction is expected to be completed by March next year.