Sale of Meralco stake boosts SMC’s projected 2013 net income to P57 B

By Doris C. Dumlao

Philippine Daily Inquirer

3:13 pm | Monday, January 13th, 2014

SMC president Ramon S. Ang AP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — San Miguel Corp. net income for 2013 may hit P57 billion, double the previous year’s level due to extraordinary gains from the sale of its interest in power distributor Manila Electric Co.

SMC president Ramon S. Ang told reporters on Monday that SMC earlier had estimated that net profit for 2013 would likely come in at P39 billion. But based on the latest assessment, he added, last year’s bottom line may end up at P57 billion with the full booking of gains from the sale of shares in Meralco.

For 2014, Ang said he could not say whether earnings would be better. “If we sell something, it may even surpass 2013,” he said in a briefing during the listing by way of introduction of SMC’s controlling stockholder Top Frontier Investment Holdings.

The upgraded estimate of 2013 net profit for SMC is more than double the P27.6 billion in bottomline booked in 2012.

In December last year, the Gokongwei group completed its buyout of SMC group’s 27-percent stake in Meralco for P72 billion. SMC unloaded its interest in Meralco at P235 per share involving about 305.69 million shares.

Even excluding extraordinary gains, Ang said, SMC had a “very stable” cash flow as measured by its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) worth $2 billion per year.

“And with our Petron refinery upgrade, which is about to run, the company has a very good future. Once the Petron refinery upgrade runs, it will give us $800 million in EBITDA for Petron alone. Then, the other generating plants and businesses of SMC are continuously improving,” Ang said.

“If you notice, our earnings in SMC have been in an uptrend for the last 15 years,” Ang said.

Follow Us

Recent Stories:

Complete stories on our Digital Edition newsstand for tablets, netbooks and mobile phones; 14-issue free trial. About to step out? Get breaking alerts on your mobile.phone. Text ON INQ BREAKING to 4467, for Globe, Smart and Sun subscribers in the Philippines.

Short URL: http://business.inquirer.net/?p=160051

Tags: Business , Meralco , Ramon S. Ang , San Miguel Corp.

Factual errors? Contact the Philippine Daily Inquirer's day desk. Believe this article violates journalistic ethics? Contact the Inquirer's Reader's Advocate. Or write The Readers' Advocate:

seo tools