Meralco prepays P4.9-B debt

MANILA, Philippines - Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s biggest power distributor, has successfully prepaid P4.9 billion in debts last month.

Meralco senior vice president and chief finance officer Betty Siy-Yap said the company prepaid the amount on June 29.

“Our consolidated debt after the June prepayment should be about P30 billion,” she said, adding there would be no more prepayments to follow.

Thus, she stressed any prepayment for the remaining P30 billion consolidated debt will not happen this year.

Meralco’s debts are denominated in pesos. Maturities range from seven-year and 12-year for fixed rate corporate bonds due in 2020 and 2025, respectively and a final payment on a bilateral loan agreement in 2024.

Meralco reported a consolidated core net income of P4.1 billion in the first quarter of this year, almost the same level as the P4 billion reported in the same period last year.

Energy sales rose two percent during the first three months to 7,908 gigawatt-hour (gwh) from the 7,777 gwh recorded a year ago. Customer count, meanwhile, went up over three percent to more than 5.4 million, latest data from the power firm showed.