NLEX Corp. said net income rose 8 percent in the first nine months from a year ago, on sustained traffic growth across North Luzon Expressway and Subic-Clark Tarlac Expressway.
The operator NLEX and SCTEX said net income amounted to P4.58 billion from January to September, up from P4.49 billion posted in the same period last year.
It said the income growth was driven by higher toll revenues at NLEX and SCTEX during the period which grew by 14 percent on the back of sustained traffic growth.
Revenues in the nine-month period reached P11.2 billion, up by 15 percent from P9.8 billion a year earlier.
“The growth is attributed to higher traffic during the period for both NLEX and SCTEX and the implementation of toll rate adjustments in NLEX and SCTEX this year,” the company said.
Average daily traffic along NLEX reached 266,888 vehicle entries, higher by 6.3 percent than in the same period last year, while average daily traffic at SCTEX increased 12.6 percent to 68,748 vehicle entries.
NLEX traffic was boosted by the opening of Harbor Link Segment 10 in March 2019.
The company said it also generated revenues from advertising, toll services and utility facilities and rental and service income in the first three quarters amounting to P229 million. This was 71 percent higher than P134 million posted in the same period last year.
The non-toll revenue growth was driven by rental revenues from NLEX Drive & Dine which started operations in the fourth quarter of 2018.
NLEX earlier said it planned to submit a proposal to the Toll Regulatory Board to build a P20-billion extension of North Luzon Expressway from San Fernando, Pampanga to Dinalupihan, Bataan. This would be known as NLEX Phase 3.
NLEX Phase 3, with an estimated cost of P20 billion, is 2×2 lane expressway spanning 40 kilometers.
Phase 1 of NLEX consists of four segments with a total length of 92 km, including the rehabilitated and expanded 84-km stretch from Balintawak, Quezon City to Mabalacat, Pampanga and the 8.5-km Segment 7 from Hermosa, Bataan to Subic Freeport.
Phase 2 of NLEX consists of four segments with a length of 21 km involving the construction of the greenfield northern C5 to connect the existing C5 from C.P. Garcia Ave. in the University of the Philippines complex in Diliman, Quezon City to NLEX and extending westward to MacArthur Highway in Valenzuela City, before turning south down to C3 in Caloocan City.
North Luzon Expressway now spans 95 kilometers, or 527-lane kilometers, and serves an average of 237,046 vehicles a day. It is the main infrastructure backbone that connects Metro Manila to Central and Northern Luzon.
SCTEx, meanwhile, is a 94-km, 2×2 expressway stretching from Subic-Tipo to La Paz, Tarlac, connecting the special economic zones in Subic and Clark to Tarlac City.
