ABOITIZ Power Corp. reported on Thursday a 10-percent drop in its net income for the first semester of the year to P8 billion, mainly due to a P143-million recurring loss recorded for the period.
It said that the revaluation of consolidated dollar-denominated loans and placements resulted to a nonrecurring loss of P143 million as against last year’s gain of P323 million. Adjusting for this one-off, the company’s core net income from January to June amounted to P8.2 billion, down by 5 percent from the same period a year ago.
However, CEO Erramon I. Aboitiz insisted the company is “uniquely positioned to provide its customers with the right power solution, given the power firm’s varied portfolio of generation assets.”
“Power continues to be an important business for us despite the various challenges we faced in the period. As our country’s economy grows, we remain committed to boosting our portfolio nationwide with a balanced mix of renewable- and nonrenewable-energy sources, keeping in mind our responsibility to provide the Philippines with reliable, ample, and reasonably priced power with the least impact on our environment and our host communities,” he said.
Its generation business accounted for 79 percent of earnings contributions from AboitizPower’s business segments, recording an income share of P6.4 billion for the first semester of 2015, down 15 percent from the same period last year.
As of end-semester, AboitizPower’s attributable net generation rose by 3 percent, from 5,555 gigawatt-hours (GWh) to 5,709 GWh, as electricity sold through bilateral contracts, which made up 88 percent of total energy sold during the period, expanded by 7 percent to 5,025 GWh. “This is in line with the company’s efforts to reduce its exposure to spot-market sales,” Aboitiz said. Consequently, spot sales decreased by 21 percent, from 863 GWh to 685 GWh.
The CleanTechnica web site said 1 gigawatt can power up to 750,000 homes and is equal to about two coal-fired power plants.
Meanwhile, in terms of capacity, higher sales through bilateral contracts and ancillary services resulted to a 2-percent increase in AboitizPower’s attributable sales from 1,766 MW to 1,795 MW.
This was due to Snap Benguet and Therma Mobile’s increase in capacity sales, which more than offset the decline in the capacity sales of the Tiwi-MakBan plants during the period, documents provided by the company said. Volume of ancillary sales, in particular, improved by 18 percent as water levels saw an improvement during the period as compared to the year before.
In June the company began commercial operations of its 14-MW Sabangan run-of-river hydroelectric plant, Aboitiz said.
“Meanwhile, works on the Davao coal plant is ongoing. As stated earlier, Unit 2 is expected to be commissioned by February 2016. Unit 1, which is currently undergoing testing, is expected to be commissioned within the third quarter.”
The power distribution group’s earnings share for the first semester of 2015 grew by 20 percent, from P1.4 billion to P1.7 billion.
Total attributable electricity sales increased by 10 percent year-on-year, from 2,122 GWh to 2,338 GWh. The increase was driven by the sales growth registered by Davao Light, Veco, Subic EnerZone, as well as the fresh contribution from LiMA EnerZone, which was acquired in June 2014, according to Aboitiz.