Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC) announced an 18 percent gain in consolidated reported net income for the first quarter of 2009 to P650 million compared with P552 million in the same period last year, raising expectations of a P3.6 billion core income by yearend.

In a press briefing Wednesday, MPIC president Jose Ma. K. Lim said core net income jumped 118 percent to P775 million for the first 3 months of 2010 from the first quarter core net income of P356 million for 2009.

Core net income is after deducting fair value adjustments of P138 million for the quarter.

“The first quarter results this year reflect a strong pace in revenue and profit growth across-the-board for our portfolio companies which started about a year ago,” said MPIC chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan.

He noted that, “on the basis of a strong operating performance of the group during the period, we are quite optimistic that prospects for 2010 remain attractive.

“On this basis, we are prepared to guide our Core Profitability for the year 2010 at P3.6 billion before Fair Value Adjustments, and Core Profitability at P3.0 billion after Fair Value Adjustments are made,” said Pangilinan.

The significant improvement in core income in the first quarter is attributable to higher contributions from Maynilad Water Services, Inc., Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation and Manila Electric Company (Meralco).

Maynilad accounted for P557 million or 46 percent of the aggregate net profit contribution from MPIC’s portfolio companies, representing MPIC’s attributable interest in Maynilad’s core income.

MPTC contributed P399 million or 33 percent of profit from operations while MPIC’s investment in Meralco added P211 million or 18 percent of equitized core earnings for the first three months of 2010. The Healthcare group contributed P39 million or 3 percent of the total.

“The strong results of Maynilad, MPTC and Meralco are driving this quarter’s earnings growth. Going forward, we will continue to strengthen and enhance the performance of the companies in our investment portfolio,” said Lim.

He added that “we continue to be committed to investing in infrastructure in the country. For the full year, the Group’s portfolio companies, as a whole anticipates investing P22 billion of which we spent P4.2 billion in the first quarter, an increase of 122 percent over 2009.”