Tycoon Edgar Saavedra’s Megawide Construction Corp. grew first-quarter net income by 26 percent to P265 million as the infrastructure builder accelerated debt reduction and tightened costs.
The company slashed nearly P6 billion in short-term debt during the quarter, a move that could save up to P300 million in annual interest costs as uncertainty tied to the Middle East conflict clouds the outlook.
Construction remained Megawide’s biggest revenue driver at P3.84 billion, up 5 percent, while real estate revenues more than doubled to P831 million and landport operations posted a slight loss.
Consolidated revenues rose 14 percent to P4.81 billion, while gross margin improved to 24 percent from 22 percent as tighter cost controls helped defend profitability.
“Our results in the first three months is consistent with our back-ended target for the year. While we sustained a healthy performance early on, we have yet to quantify the impact of the Middle East War and a newly replenished construction order book in the coming months,” Saavedra, the chair and CEO of Megawide, said in a statement.
Balance sheet strengthens
Megawide’s deleveraging push sharply improved its balance sheet, with bank debt-to-equity falling to 1.1 times from 1.54 times at end-2025, while net debt-to-equity dropped below 1 times to 0.8 times.
“The other side of our value creation strategy is boosting our financial position to ease the debt servicing burden and provide financial flexibility. Already, we have pared down almost P6 billion of our short-term debt in the first quarter alone,” Saavedra added.
The company said lower debt levels and easing borrowing costs should help free up more financial flexibility for future expansion projects.
“For the remainder of the year, we are programmed to pay down another P2.5-3 billion from our short-term obligations as we aim to boost our liquidity and free up more debt headroom to support our long-term growth aspirations,” said Jez dela Cruz, Megawide group CFO.
Growth pipeline intact
Despite geopolitical uncertainty, Megawide ended the quarter with a construction order book worth P48.7 billion, anchored by transport terminals, public market redevelopment and socialized housing projects under the government’s expanded 4PH program.
The company is also building around 11,000 socialized housing units and advancing projects such as the Baguio City Integrated Terminal, the South Luzon Integrated Terminal Exchange and the Cavite Bus Rapid Transit System.
—Edited by Miguel R. Camus
