Good day everyone. Thank you for joining the online briefing to discuss the First Pacific 2025 Full Year Financial and Operating Results. The results presentation is available on First Pacific's website, www.firstpacific.com, under the Investor Relations presentation page. This results briefing is being recorded and the replay will be available on First Pacific's website this evening in the Investor Relations section. For participants from the media, please note the Q&A session is open for investors and analysts only. If you would like to ask questions, please contact us when the briefing finishes. Today we have with us our Executive Director, Mr. Chris Young, our CFO, Mr. Joseph Ng, Associate Director, Mr. John Ryan, and Mr. Stanley Yang, and other senior executives from the head office of the First Pacific. Over to you, John, for the presentation, please.
Thank you, Sara. Well, I'll just go through very quickly the First Pacific part of this presentation, then I'll move to the Q&A for you folks. Now, let's begin on page three with a quick reminder of some of our major investments, all of which have done pretty well in the course of 2025, and we'll discuss this later on. Now on page four, we've got the shape of our gross asset value on December 31st, 2025. The GAV was about $5.3 billion, Indofood just over 1/3 . MPIC valued there at $1.3 billion, the U.S. dollar value of the pesos we paid for it when it was privatized back in the autumn of 2023. We own now about 49.9% of MPIC.
You might see there that PLPs valuation has increased to $398 million, and that's because we put some money into it to help finance the building of a new power plant, which our financial controller, Richard Chan, might discuss later if that's of interest to you folks. Of course, there's PLDT, our 25% or so owned telephone company and then t here's the Philex Group of companies, which make up just over 10% of our gross asset value. Now let's move on to the earnings for 2025 on page five.
Turnover was up 2%, a little over $10 billion. Higher revenue at Indofood and MPIC. Decline at PLP, PacificLight Power . Contribution from operations reached a record high. I believe like the recurring profit, it's been about seven years in a row we've had increases, and the previous five have been records. Indofood, PLDT, MPIC, highest ever revenues, and MPIC delivered their highest ever earnings as well.
Now, recurring profit, as I say, it's up a good double digit, 10% to $740 million, up from about $673 million in 2024. Net profit was up the similar number, 10%, to another record high, $661 million. Now to a matter that is dear to the heart of many shareholders, the directors approved a final distribution of HK$0.14 a share. You folks will vote on that at the AGM, and t hat brings the full year distribution to HK$0.27 a share, and that's the highest ever on a per share basis that we have ever paid ou and t hat, of course, fits under our progressive dividend policy where we're committed to increasing the per share amount of money we distribute to shareholders every year, apart from special circumstances.
As you can see on the middle chart here on the right-hand side, the increase in recurring profit was driven mostly by MPIC and Indofood. There were little declines at PLDT and PLP. Head office cash flow, as you can see, we had about $311 million of dividend income, and there are the distributions going out to you folks and t hat's the biggest amount of money sent out and t hen the net cash interest expense follows.
If you look deeper into this book or want to discuss it later, you'll see that our interest bill is declining along with the interest, amount that we're paying. Over on page six, a little bit more detail on our cash flow and balance sheet. As you can see here, at the present day, we have no borrowings falling due until September 2027, when our only bond, $350 million, becomes due. A $200 million that was due in 2026, as you can see, has been shifted over by five years to 2031. Our interest cost is round about 4.6% for the year, and the average maturity is about 3.2 years. I would guess over the course of the next 12-18 months, that 3.2 is gonna become a bigger number. Our CFO, Joseph Ng, will discuss that in the Q&A, if you like.
Dividend income there on the bottom left shows that we've been consistently over $300 million in recent years and v ery important to us is the interest coverage ratio, as you can see, was 4.5x in 2025. That's up from 4x the previous year, and that is well above our comfort level. Though it must be said, we don't have any plans for that number changing anytime soon on account of additional borrowing by us. Now, I'll wind up the narrative part of this meeting with a quick look at a reason that many people are invested in First Pacific.
As you can see, from 2018- 2025, we've had over a doubling of our profit at First Pacific. I think in 2018 it was around $290 million in recurring profit, and we're up to $740 million in 2025. As you can see, the exchange rates of the rupiah and the peso were down about 11% and 14% respectively over that time. What this does is it illustrates quite vividly the hard currency security of putting your money in First Pacific so that you can secure the gains to be had from the fastest growing economies in the world, which are described by the IMF over in that bottom right-hand chart, where you can see there's a doubling over the 10 years to 2030 from 2020.
Let me actually very quickly go through the main companies. Indofood had record sales. As I said, core profit was up just 1% to a highest ever level. Many of you may have attended their investor briefing earlier today. If you haven't, we can discuss some more about their description of their earnings and predictions for the future, many of which we have put into the outlook for 2026.
To speak briefly about that, there's an inference you can make that 2026 will be rather better than 2025. Of course, you know, we have that devil in the Middle East conflict, which we don't know how it will affect any of us going forward. We can discuss this later on if you like, but there's pretty high confidence over at Indofood. Now we're going to flip a few more pages to Metro Pacific.
Looking at page 14, record high earnings, as said before, core profit up 15%. As you can see in the pie chart, most of it was contributed by the power company Meralco, which is beginning to see a huge contribution from its still fairly new power generation business. They bought into a very large LNG terminal accompanied by two natural gas-fired power plants in Project Chromite. Stanley Yang, who worked on that transaction, can help discuss that later on. It just addresses that generation is going to be a big part of earnings growth at Meralco going forward. The newly listed water company, Maynilad, also was a very big contributor to the earnings there and then the toll roads.
Their contribution, as you can see, didn't grow so much as illustrated in the bottom left, and that's because, in part, we owned a little bit less of it than we did earlier. Now let's dash ahead to PLDT, which is the biggest telecommunications firm in the Philippines. Service revenues record high, EBITDA at a record high, and the EBITDA margin still very strong at 52%. Core profit rose 1%, actually similar number to Indofood's. It was helped for the first time ever by Maya, which is the 38% owned fintech. It's the only digital bank in the Philippines, which is both owned by a telecommunications firm and has a banking license.
It's a very interesting little company, and it moved into profit for the first time during the course of 2025. The following column chart on the bottom right there shows you the usual story. It's data that has been driving earnings growth and fixed line voice too, in a kind of funny way. There's a big international element there. Now we'll skip past Maya and over to PLP, which had earnings slightly down. Sales were a little bit down as well. Market share steady at 9.6%.
As you can see, the monthly average electricity prices are down quite a bit from those powerful period of earnings we had in 2023, and that's really the main driver of how their earnings have gone over the past couple of years. Net debt is absolutely negligible at less than HK$ 40 million. Now over to page 27, where Philex Mining, which has been operating Padcal for six decades, I think, and it's still going strong for another few years until 2028, I believe.
You can see that after six decades, the grades of gold and copper there in the blue box, they're rather lower than you might want to see. If you want to see better, turn the page to the Silangan Project, which is accelerating towards the opening of commercial operations over the next weeks and months. You can see that the grades there in the middle box are much, much higher than what we've got going on at Padcal. We're very excited about the prospects for Silangan, and we think it's going to be a good solid contributor to First Pacific, going forward and to its parent, Philex.
Now, I'm going to end the introduction with a quick dash to page 52, where I would like us all to pay attention to the second line, China Securities Depository and Clearing. They're probably up at this stage close towards 150 million shares. We have now a third brokerage about to start equity research coverage of First Pacific for mainland investors, and this has been almost entirely due to the efforts of my colleague Sara Cheung, who's here two seats away. These new mainland investors provide much valued liquidity to the share trading in First Pacific, and we welcome them with open arms. That's it for the opening narrative. We can move over to Q&A.
If you have any questions, you can just put your questions in the chat box or just raise your hand.
Jeff could you unmute and ask your question, please?
Thanks, John. Thanks for taking my question. Maybe starting with two from me. It is all about dividends first. Just want to check the regular final dividends increased 3% year-on-year, which seems to be a little bit muted compared with what we saw in the past. Separately, you also pay a special dividend with respect to Maynilad's subscription shares. Just trying to check whether the regular dividend growth this time is a sign of caution on the outlook or whether we are trying to smooth out the total DPS growth over the next few years, including the specials. That's the first one.
The second one would be about Indofood payout. I understand the dividend will be decided in the AGM in the next couple of weeks. Just trying to figure out from your perspective, are you seeing any particular resistance for INDF to raise the dividend payout ratio in the future? Thank you.
Jeff, you know our CFO, Joseph Ng. He'll deal with the first question, and I'll ask our Executive Director, Chris, to deal with the second.
Oh, hi, Jeff. It's Joseph here. I think your 3% is only focused on the final, if I'm guessing your question correctly, 'cause last year's final was HK$0.13.5 , and this year's final is HK$0.14 . In aggregate, if you aggregate the interim and final, last year was HK$0.255, and this year is altogether HK$0.27 'cause we paid HK$0.13 for the interim. There is a 6% growth, which is not the 3% you mentioned, so it's not insignificant. If you add back the so-called special distribution we make as a result of the Maynilad IPO, we pay another HK$0.115 . Adding together, I think we have almost 10% growth against last year's HK0.$255 .
That's broadly in line with the growth in the so-called recurring line from last year's HK$673 million to this year's HK$740 million. It's 10% growth in the recurring, which is a key KPI indicator for us. Broadly in line. Our regular dividend growth or distribution growth is 6%, but all-in is 10% growth. With that, HK$0.27 altogether, I think we are paying altogether about HK$150 million +, and that also needs to tie to what we disclose in the cash flow. That's for 2025. We have a HK$311 million dividend income.
You can see that in its own more than half of the so-called gross dividend line that we are returning to the shareholders, even without including the so-called special distribution. Then you have to add office overhead and the like. Remember, Jeff, also starting from 2025 and more heavily in 2026, we need to kind of reinvest some of the money that we have from the dividend from the units, and then reinvest those money back to PLP to fund this equity requirement for the new gas fund. We try to kind of strike a balance as to what we return to shareholders, which is not a small ratio, which is quite a high ratio.
If you take out the head office expenses and interest, we are returning more than 70% of free cash to the shareholders and keep a little bit for our re-investment into the PLP gas fund. I think that's the kind of macro thinking behind kind of fixing the final dividend at HK$0.14 per share and making a total of HK$0.27, regular and then at 10% growth in aggregate, including a special dividend we paid to the shareholders as part of the Maynilad IPO . That's on the dividend side. On the Indofood dividend side, maybe Chris could contribute and then give us a bit color on that.
Okay. Jeff, I think normally as I think you're aware, it's a discussion with the management there at Indofood, and generally it's a fairly constructive discussion. I think we would take into account two elements in considering that dividend. I think if you look at John's presentation, or you've seen the Indofood results, the recurring profit growth last year for Indofood was 1%. The outlook at the moment looks reasonable without too much disruption from what's going on in the Middle East, but obviously there is a bit of uncertainty. That would be the context to the discussion. What was the underlying growth last year, and what is the outlook? As you yourself noted, that discussion will happen over the next couple of months.
Thank you.
Okay. Now we'll ask Timothy Chow to unmute and ask what he's got to ask.
Hello. Thank you management for giving me the chance to ask the questions. I have a couple about Middle East first. First on Indofood, I understand just now management talked about, like, how the Middle East impact seems to be minimal on Indofood, but I'm just wondering if there will be any implications on the, you know, raw material cost, because I think over the past year, there's reportedly some kind of a raw material price hike that affected the margin. So I'm just wondering if the Middle East, if extended kind of being an extended event, would that aggravate.
The second question also about Middle East would be on PLP because I... If I remember correctly, the electricity price in Singapore could actually be moved as long as the gas price is up. I'm just wondering if there will be any positive read-through from Middle East on PLP here.
Go ahead.
Sorry. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. My last question is on the PLP project. Just wondering if there is a finalized budget on the potential CapEx spend on the project yet. Just now you mentioned about, like, how we have already been investing some in PLP already on that particular project. Just wondering the timeline of the entire CapEx and how it will be in the coming two to three years. Thank you.
Timothy, I'll take a stab at the first one, then Stan will help you with PLP. Indofood told us in their briefing this morning that, as far as wheat goes, they've got three or four months of supply on hand, and they see that it looks like there's globally going to be a good crop of wheat better than the previous year in 2026. They're not too worried about that. CPO prices are up a bit, after rising 10% in 2025 to about IDR 14,100. They're around IDR 15,000 at the end of the first quarter. They are not feeling any particular pressure from raw material prices. As far as the PineHill businesses in Middle East and North Africa, they have been able to secure their supplies up to now, and there is as of yet no particular concern. PLP, Stan.
Sure. Hi, Timothy. Just to address your questions on PacificLight, first on the electricity prices and the impact of the Middle East fuel oil. For PLP, its gas comes from a global supplier, in this case Shell. There is some impact in terms of some of the flow in terms of the LNG that's supplied into Singapore, some of the disruption. It's a relatively small portion, a minority. I would say that at least for the next month plus there's sufficient supply. When you get beyond it, there will be some impact in terms of the supply coming in that would typically come from the Middle East. Alternate arrangements are being made.
The company as well as other generators who are affected in the market are also in discussions on solutions that would help, including having some of the gas supplied, you know, by EMA and being able to run, but also other in terms of the existing contractual arrangements that they can procure in terms of their global supply. We think in terms of certainly the near term there will be less impact. As the months go by and if this crisis continues, then some of these alternatives on how the balance of gas will be filled in light of their retail contracts for the company will need to be covered.
When it comes to the project itself, you know, the project itself is looking at starting in 2029, and so the heavy lifting in terms of the construction and so forth is still to come. Within this year, there would be an expectation of the notice to proceed, which basically kicks off the formal development and projects. From there, you know, the piling works and then subsequently over the next couple of years the balance of the contracts. That CapEx, as we would look at it, would be spread across the next few years up until the planned operation date in 2029.
Thank you for the color. On PLP, the rise in gas price, if I remember correctly, I think back in 2023 when the gas price is up, we actually have a higher profit because of the non-fuel margin being higher. I'm just wondering if this case, given, I mean, like, given the case is not as bad as like the lack of supply in gas in the end. I'm just wondering if there will be any positive read-through for PLP in this case or are we still cautious about our-
I think it's too early to make the call. I think the next couple of months will be critical. I think because the company has a strong position with respect to its retail customers for this year, then there's definitely visibility. But the impact of any supply disruption, not just for our company, PLP, but also for the entire market in Singapore, you know, the question will be the balance of any gas that comes from the affected markets, you know, for instance, Qatar, and how that would impact the entire supply. You know, as I mentioned before, that's not the majority of the supply. It's a minority, small, relatively small percentage. It is one that we are monitoring because you know that clearly the supply in aggregate into the market has to balance with what the generation demands will be for running the plants.
Okay. Got it. Thank you.
Thank you, Stan. Any more questions? I think Jeff has another question. Jeff, please unmute and ask your question.
Yeah, thanks. Thanks, John. Maybe switching gears a little bit to MPI, just trying to figure out how should we think about maybe the Maynilad Water business in 2026. If there's any tariff adjustment, can you remind us over there? But if not, just want to hear your maybe general assessment on MPI's 2026. That's my first question. The second would be just talking about the FP Natural Resources, which we usually do not really focus on. Just trying to understand why the loss contribution diminished in 2025, and is there any one-off events there? Thank you very much.
Stan?
Sure. On the question of the, you're talking mostly on the water, was it?
Yeah. If we can expect some tariff increases in 2026 following the 10% last year.
This year it's gonna be more muted than last year's in terms of the tariff impact. There have been, following the revision, the revised concession agreement, a series of adjustments over a few years. You know, those have had the benefit in terms of the flow into Maynilad and the system. This year it would be 4% though is the expectation in terms of the tariff adjustment. The business itself will continue to grow and t he supply of water and the management's efforts to improve that, I think they focused heavily on the non-revenue water, which is the losses in the system, and bringing that down to levels that the company has not seen ever since our existence in owning the business.
For us, that's a big savings that helps improve the cost of the water supply and efficiency in the system. The management themselves are focused on continuing to improve that along with the continuation of tariffs as part of their CapEx program, which was agreed as part of the concession agreement that they revised. Those would be the key imperatives to continue to build on that business.
Okay, thank you. The second question? Jeff, will you remind us please?
Oh, yeah. The FP Natural Resources, just trying to figure out why did the loss diminished in 2025 compared with 2024? Just trying to check if there's any one-off events driving the narrower losses or anything happened there. That would be helpful. Thank you.
Chris.
Actually, maybe I could take that. It's Joseph Ng. Yeah, I mean, that operation, the sugar operation has basically stopped. We are laying off all the staff and we're trying to sell the residual assets owned by the operation. I mean, previously we had the alcohol operation, and we are in discussion of selling this kind of final set of operating asset, a refinery asset with a certain investor, certain buyer. With that, actually the scale of the operation basically stopped. That's the reason why you see the recurring profit line. There's actually no significant amount there. We do make some impairment provision as a result of selling those refinery assets that I mentioned, because now we have identified buyer. We in final discussion with the buyer.
We know that the final selling price of the refinery part is lower than the book value, so there are certain impairment provisions made below the line under the sort of the non-recurring. But above the line, there's basically no operation anymore. No significant operation. That's why you see that it's very little impact to the recurring profit line.
Thanks, Joseph, and thanks, Stanley. I would just want to take the chance to just have one more quick follow-up or just other question. Just want to hear our plan for refinancing the head office borrowings. John mentioned we have refinanced the repayable loan in 2026, and just trying to figure out how do we think about the current, maybe the head office net debt, cash interest coverage ratio and also our maturity schedule down the next maybe two years. Thank you very much.
Yeah. As mentioned by John, we finished the refinancing of the January 2026 bond loan. We actually signed the commitment before the end of last year. We just draw the facility and pay off the bond loan in early January. That's all done as far as 2026 liability management initiative is concerned. The next one coming up from this bar chart is the $350 million bond due in September 2027. Now, we still have, as of today, maybe 18 months to go. It is still early, but as per our usual prudent financial management, we are actively looking into that and talking to a number of banks. We're getting proposals on, say, refinancing the bond with another bond.
We have received quite a number of proposals with different quotes. We are not in a rush to say because the whole market is so volatile. You probably understand from the market that actually both the bond investor side and many issuers are actually waiting on the sidelines to see how all these Middle East crises will turn out and how that would affect the interest rate environment in the next six- to nine months. For us, I think the plan is that we have 18 months to go, but we should get ourselves ready. Probably when we get into the second half of this year, we'll probably kind of accelerate a little bit on the preparation process and see what
What would really be wise is the kind of terms and pricing that we could get from the different banks. In parallel, of course, we will try to explore other alternative, like, syndicated bank loan if, well, we think that those bank loans terms and pricing are more attractive. Of course, I mean, bank loans will not give you the tenor that we could get from the bond market, the seven or 10 years. As you can see from the term to maturity bond barrier, if you get another 5 years probably you get into the 2031/ 2032 space, which may be a bit crowded. Our preference would be still a bond for one, the tenor, two is to diversify the credit resources so that we don't 100% rely on the bank financing.
That's the initial thinking, 'cause we always try to strike a better balance between the bank credit resources and the bond credit resources. The preference is to go for a bond if the market is there, and if the terms and pricing are palatable to us. We never say never, we just wait until the whole market calms down a bit and the whole bond market becomes active again.
Okay.
Thank you very-
Thanks, Joseph. Maybe can I have a real quick follow-up?
Yes, you may.
Just as of the end of 2025, I think you disclosed 54% of the debt is on fixed rate basis at the head office level. Is this split some sort of optimal in your opinion? Or should we be targeting more fixed rate borrowings as we think for the next maybe three to five years? Right. Given the volatile interest rate environment sometimes be a rate cut, sometimes the expectations just bounce around.
Actually this-
Just trying to figure out the thinking here.
...Yeah, Jeff it is. These are difficult questions because the interest rate environment is actually shifting back and forth, and sometimes they say, I mean, there will be one interest rate cut this year and followed by two next year, and now they're maybe shifting a little bit. Even the Fed will be shifting the position maybe not to rate cuts in 2027, maybe one. I mean, all these are subject to changes since the whole market is so volatile. With that sort of volatile situation, it's really difficult to say that, well, we should increase the hedge ratio to a higher level or we reduce it. As of now, I think we are quite comfortable with what we have. We're probably 50% thereabout, 'cause you can't win all and you will not lose it all. As of now, that's what I could say for now.
Got it. Thank you.
Okay. I believe, Timothy, please unmute and ask your question.
Oh yeah, sorry, manager, it's me again. Thank you for giving me the chance to ask a second round. Just a really quick one on potential corporate events. I think this year the theme has been, you know, capital recycling, unlocking asset values. I'm just wondering, given our you know very diverse and broad portfolio, do you have similar stuff that the management is looking to maybe divest some kind of non-core or at least partially divest like an IPO, for example, like a Maynilad kind of thinking to really unlock the asset value and maybe pocket some kind of funds as well?
Especially, I think I've read somewhere in the news about potential, you know, IPO or listing or private placement for Maya. Like back in the days, I think there were also some market chatter about the, you know, private placement for MPTC back then to help relieve the financing, financial issues for the total assets. I'm just wondering if there is anything regarding corporate events that the company's thinking about now. Thank you.
Certainly as a holding company, we look at a span of initiatives, both on the M&A side, which you've seen over the last few years, and also in terms of capital markets. You know, you raised the example of Maynilad IPO. When it comes to, as you pointed out, Maya, it's a business that has improved quite a bit. The growth of both the wallet and then subsequently after that, taking the leadership both in the merchant acquiring and now in the digital banking side has really pivoted that platform from what was quite small a few years ago to now the leader and continuing to grow rapidly.
Whether this is the year that at this time a listing can be done, I think we would management and shareholders are always reviewing the strategic options. I think, you know, actually an interesting similar case was there was the Japanese fintech recently, PayPay, that just listed earlier this month. Despite the challenges of the market around and so forth, actually the price has held up quite well. I think it's fair to say that we will continue to monitor if there is an opportunity. Of course, Maya is much smaller than the one that listed in Japan, but its growth and its trajectory are moving in a very positive direction.
You know, we would see this as a potential as it continues to grow. Really, the question is in terms of timing, and I would say with respect to other portfolio companies and across the group, I think we continue to evaluate how we can improve the positions of them in their respective sectors and, you know, as and when decisions are undertaken to pursue things more formally then of course we would, you know, provide more guidance at that point in time.
MPTC?
I think MPTC, you know, at the moment, the business is continuing to focus on delivering this year its projects. They have quite a number of projects within the Philippines that are looking to complete. That's really been the focus. Also some of the de-leveraging efforts of management because of the acquisitions that they've undertaken in the last few years. Those are the principal initiatives looking at partners and some capital into the business to help in terms of the debt reduction of the overall roads. With that, we continue to also consider whatever strategic opportunities are to further enhance our position as a platform and the shareholders of our roads business.
Thank you very much, Stan. As there are no more questions, and time is getting on, we'll wind up now, beginning with a reminder that we will be visiting fund managers in Europe and North America, after Easter holidays. If you would like to see us, please get in touch with me or Sara or my colleague, jryan@firstpacific.com. These meetings have historically been quite worthwhile for the fund managers who see us because we cannot hide our feelings on our face. You'll see us coming in and we'll be feeling really, really good, and that will be important to your perspective towards our company. Now to summarize how we feel and where we think we're going, I turn now to Chris Young, Executive Director.
Okay. Thank you, John, and thank you for joining us on the call today. The results, as you've seen for 2025 were good, and a continuation of a trend that we've seen over the last seven years or so. However, clearly the outlook in the short to the medium term is somewhat uncertain. However, I think we remain cautiously optimistic that given the nature of our businesses, which I think are quite defensive, given their consumer-facing nature of them, that we will be able to shelter the group really from these uncertainties over the next few months or so.
We look forward to updating you again on the half-year results, which I think are at the end of August 28. Until then, we will keep you informed on a regular basis, and as John and Stan will be visiting Europe and the U.S., hopefully you will get a chance to meet with them face-to-face before then. Turn it back to Sara.
Yes. Thanks, Chris. Thanks again for joining today's owner brief. You may disconnect now. Thank you.