TransCo reports net income of P9.13B for first semester

The National Transmission Corporation recently reported a net income of P9.13 billion for the first semester this year or an increase of P605 million compared to the same period last year.

TransCo president Alan Ortiz said this income came from the firm's gross revenue of P13.09 billion for the six-month period, which was also a 6.1 percent increase from the firm's gross take through the same period last year.

TransCo, a government-owned firm, had assumed the electrical transmission functions in major grids from the National Power Corporation that went bankrupt after it got mired in alleged anomalous deals with private contractors.

Ortiz said the good performance of TransCo was primarily due to the enforcement of the interim maximum allowable revenue that the Energy Regulation Board had approved for implementation last April.

TransCo's operating expenses, from January to June this year, also dropped significantly from the projected P5.49 billion to only P1.53 billion, said Ortiz.

This financial performance in the first semester this year has underscored TransCo's viability vis a vis the firm's impending privatization, he said, adding that TransCo as a regulated monopoly "will remain profitable and a very good investment."

According to the latest privatization schedule of the Power Sector Assets and Liability Management Corp., the concession contract for the operation and maintenance of TransCo will be auctioned off to potential concessionaires this coming September.

PSALM said 12 groups are interested in this year's bidding, which would be the third attempt to privatize TransCo after two setbacks in 2003.

Ortiz said TransCo had been working to become a world-class organization resulting in the firm's consistently strong financial performance.

"Over the last five years, we have adopted quality management systems to make our processes more efficient...completed numerous capacity expansion and system reliability enhancement projects and...upgraded the skills of our human resources," Ortiz said. - Wenna A. Berondo