Seven years of consecutive growth, and the structure still held.
First Pacific Co Ltd closed out 2025 with its seventh straight year of profit growth — a run that, by any measure, is difficult to sustain, and yet the Hong Kong-based conglomerate managed it again, this time against a backdrop of weakening regional currencies and a global trade environment that has grown considerably more anxious.
The headline number is a recurring profit of $740 million, up 10% from $673 million the year before. Net profit also climbed 10%, landing at $661 million. Total turnover crossed $10 billion, a 2% increase, and the company's gross asset value stood at $5.3 billion as of December 31, 2025. For a holding company with sprawling operations across Southeast Asia — food manufacturing, telecommunications, infrastructure, mining — those are numbers that suggest the portfolio is pulling in the same direction, even if not every piece is thriving equally.
The standout performer was Metro Pacific Investments, whose core profit rose 15%, driven in large part by Meralco, the Philippine power distributor. MPIC also posted its highest-ever earnings, a milestone the company was quick to highlight. Indofood, the Indonesian food giant, set a revenue record of its own, though its core profit growth was modest — just 1% — reflecting the pressures of operating in a country whose currency, the rupiah, fell roughly 11% against the dollar over the course of the year. PLDT, the Philippine telecommunications group, maintained an EBITDA margin of 52%, a figure that speaks to the stickiness of its business even as the peso dropped about 14%.
The currency story is the one that runs underneath everything else. A 14% decline in the peso and an 11% decline in the rupiah don't just affect reported earnings — they affect the real value of dividends flowing back to the head office, the cost of servicing dollar-denominated debt, and the confidence of investors watching from outside the region. First Pacific's management acknowledged the headwinds plainly, though they noted that the company's interest coverage ratio improved to 4.5 times in 2025, up from 4 times the prior year, and that no borrowings come due until September 2027. That runway matters.
Shareholders received a final distribution of 14 Hong Kong cents per share, bringing the full-year payout to 27 Hong Kong cents — the highest ever on a per-share basis. The regular final dividend grew 6% year-on-year, a figure that prompted a pointed question during the earnings call: was the company signaling caution, or simply smoothing out growth over a longer horizon? CFO Hon Pong Ng pushed back on the caution reading. He noted that when a special dividend tied to MPIC's IPO is included, total distribution growth tracks closer to 10%, in line with earnings. He also pointed to the need to fund PLP's new gas plant as a reason to balance payouts against reinvestment.
PLP — the power generation subsidiary — is the piece of the portfolio drawing the most forward-looking attention. Its earnings and sales declined in 2025, with market share holding steady at 9.6%, hurt by lower electricity prices. A new project is in development, with major construction expected to begin after a notice to proceed this year and commercial operations targeted for 2029. Capital expenditure will be spread across the intervening years. Whether the Middle East conflict complicates that timeline — through gas supply disruptions or energy price volatility — remains an open question. Management said alternative supply arrangements are being made and that the immediate impact is minor, but acknowledged that the duration of the conflict will determine how much pressure builds.
Philex Mining, the company's copper and gold operation, is running its Padcal mine through 2028, with the Silangan project approaching commercial operations. The FP Natural Resources segment, which had been a drag on results, saw its losses shrink after the company shut down its sugar operations and began selling related assets. CFO Ng confirmed that impairment provisions have been made for those asset sales.
On the infrastructure side, MPI's water business is expecting a tariff adjustment of around 4% in 2026 — more modest than the 10% adjustment of the prior year, with management emphasizing efficiency gains and reducing non-revenue water losses as the path forward.
What First Pacific has built, across seven years of consecutive growth, is a portfolio that can absorb a bad year in one corner without the whole structure shaking. The test going forward is whether the currency environment stabilizes, whether PLP's new capacity comes online on schedule, and whether the geopolitical pressures that are now a permanent feature of the global economy stay manageable rather than becoming something worse.
Notable Quotes
The 6% growth in regular dividends aligns with the 10% growth in recurring earnings, and when the special dividend from the MPIC IPO is included, total distribution growth reaches approximately 10%.— Hon Pong Ng, CFO, First Pacific Co Ltd
Indofood has sufficient wheat supply and expects a good global crop, so there is no immediate concern from the Middle East conflict on raw material costs.— John Ryan, Associate Director, First Pacific Co Ltd
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Seven consecutive years of profit growth — is that actually unusual for a company like this, or is it just what a well-run conglomerate does?
It's genuinely hard to sustain. Conglomerates are exposed to so many variables across different economies that one bad cycle in one country can erase gains elsewhere. Seven years suggests either exceptional management, a favorable macro run, or both.
The currency declines — 11% for the rupiah, 14% for the peso — those sound severe. How does a company absorb that without it showing up more painfully in the results?
Partly through the structure of the business. If your revenues are local-currency but your reporting is in dollars, a weaker peso hurts on paper but doesn't necessarily mean the underlying business is doing worse. The real pain comes when you're servicing dollar debt or repatriating dividends.
And they have no debt due until 2027. Does that actually matter as much as they're implying?
It matters a lot. Refinancing risk is one of the quieter killers of otherwise healthy companies. Knowing you have a two-year buffer means you're not forced to refinance at a bad moment — you can wait for conditions to improve.
The dividend question in the earnings call felt loaded. Was the CFO being evasive?
Not exactly evasive — more like reframing. The 6% regular dividend growth looks thin until you add the special dividend from the MPIC IPO, and then it tracks with earnings. But investors who don't get that context might read caution into the number.
What's the actual significance of MPIC posting its highest-ever earnings?
MPIC is the infrastructure arm — power, water, hospitals, toll roads in the Philippines. When that segment is firing, it tends to be durable. These aren't cyclical businesses. Meralco distributes electricity to Metro Manila. That's not a market that shrinks.
And PLP going the other direction — lower earnings, lower electricity prices — is that a structural problem or a temporary one?
Probably temporary, but the new gas plant won't be online until 2029. That's a long time to be running on a weaker footing in that segment, especially if energy prices stay volatile.
What should someone watching this company actually be tracking over the next twelve months?
Three things: whether the peso and rupiah stabilize, whether PLP's construction timeline holds, and whether the Middle East situation pushes gas prices in a direction that changes the economics of that new plant before it's even built.