The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) is eyeing higher income in 2012 as well as higher profit guidance in 2013.

Meralco Chairman Manuel Pangilinan told reporters during the IERE TIS-Asia Meeting 2013 forum in Makati City that the utility firm has set its guidance for 2013, which is expected to be higher than its profit guidance for 2012.

Pangilinan, however, declined to give exact figures since Meralco has not finalized its 2012 financial statements yet.

“Internally, we have our budgeted numbers already but we can’t disclose the number until 2012 is on screen,” he said.

 Pangilinan also said that Meralco has set target sales volumes in 2013, but that is still subject to changes depending on Philippine economic growth.

“Your revenue line is driven by your volume assumption, but the great deal of it, is it’s still dependent on how economic growth would be anticipated for 2013, and I think so far, at least for the first half, we are quite confident, that it will be good because of the election,” he said.

“On the whole, I think 2013 would be good,” the Meralco chairman added.

As for fund-raising activities, Pangilinan said that Meralco does not need to undertake capital-raising activities, because it has ample cash to support its projects, general corporate activities, and prospective investments such as power generation.

“Power generation, maybe we’ll try to invest in power generation, and if we could invest in new franchise areas, that will be good also,” he added.

 Despite the damage caused by several weather disturbances, Meralco managed to post from
January to September last year a consolidated net income amounting to P13.6 billion.

In a disclosure to Philippine Stock Exchange, Meralco announced that its unaudited consolidated core net income, which excludes one-time, exceptional charges, for the nine months ended September 30, 2012 amounted to P12.9 billion, while its consolidated reported net income amounted to 13.6 billion.

“Power consumption continues to be a barometer of the health of the economy. The rise in our energy sales volume reflects a resilient economy supported by stronger domestic consumption and higher government infrastructure spending. We continue to be optimistic about our business, having seen the better-the-expected results and are committed to implement capital expenditures, estimated to be in excess of P11 billion to further improve our network reliability,” Pangilinan said.