By Cris Larano

MANILA--Manila Electric Co. (MER.PH), the country's largest power distribution company by sales, said Monday its first-half net profit surged 60% from the year-earlier period, helped by a double-digit growth in the volume of electricity sold due to an increase in economic activity and new customers.

Net profit for the January-June period climbed to 9.75 billion pesos ($232.2 million) from PHP6.09 billion in the same period last year while total revenue increased 17% to PHP143.60 billion from PHP122.64 billion.

The company sold 16,215 gigawatt-hours of electricity in the first half, up 10% on the year. This was tempered by a lower average distribution charge it collected of PHP1.50 a kilowatt-hour this year compared with PHP1.63 a kilowatt-hour in the first half of 2011, it added.

Meantime, the board of Meralco, as the power distributor is more commonly known, approved the declaration of a PHP4 a share cash dividend, which represents 50% of the company's first half core profit of PHP9.02 billion, up 15% from PHP7.82 billion. Shareholders on record Aug. 29 are entitled to the cash dividend and will be paid Sept. 24, the company said.

Write to Cris Larano at cris.larano@dowjones.com

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires