MANILA Electric Co. (Meralco) Chairman and CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan on Tuesday said that 2026 earnings should be better than last year, driven largely by increased electricity demand.
“I think the full-year profit would be ahead of last year. This was because higher distribution utility volumes were back up in the months of May and June,” he said in an interview during Meralco’s annual stockholders’ meeting.
“In addition, the generation business is doing much better than last year, especially with the onset of Terra Solar. In the coming months, we will be exporting more power to the grid. Even our retail business is [doing] great this [year]. So overall, all three businesses are doing quite well,” Pangilinan added.
Meralco unit Meralco PowerGen Corp. (MGen), through affiliate Terra Solar Philippines Inc., earlier energized the first 250 megawatts of its capacity.
Meralco posted a consolidated core net income of P25.54 billion in the first six months of 2025, up 10 percent from a year earlier. Reported net income was P23.64 billion from P22.44 billion, while gross revenues touched P245.22 billion, up from P237.48 billion.
For the first quarter of 2026, Meralco’s net income rose to nearly P11.2 billion from P10.9 billion a year earlier, with revenues growing to P120.8 billion from P114.5 billion previously.
Meralco also said that it was looking to build more generation facilities in the Visayas and Mindanao to tap surplus turbines from liquefied natural gas (LNG) subsidiary Chromite Gas Holdings Inc.
Chromite Gas manages investments in LNG facilities primarily located in Batangas City and is a 60-40 joint venture between MGen and Aboitiz Power Corp. subsidiary Therma NatGas Power Inc.
“There’s excess turbines from when we made the investment in Chromite Gas Holdings Inc. The plan is to [set up] the excess turbines not in Batangas but in Visayas, maybe in Mindanao as well. So, more gas plants will definitely be in Visayas, and maybe a portion will be in Mindanao,” Pangilinan said.
MGen President and CEO Emmanuel Rubio said that there were six surplus turbines with a combined capacity of 435 megawatts (MW).
“We’re looking at locations where we can actually put them, and where they are especially needed,” he added.
Meralco shares on Tuesday slipped P4.00, or 0.70 percent, to close at P570 apiece amid a 1.57-percent drop for the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index.
