First Gen’s reported 5% increase in recurring income to P265m in 2022

By Alena Mae S. Flores – March 24, 2023, 7:40 pm
from manilastandard.net

First Gen Corp., the Lopez Group‘s clean and renewable energy provider, said Friday its recurring net income went up 5 percent in 2022 to $265 million (P14.3 billion) from $252 million (P12.4 billion) in 2021.

First Gen said in a disclosure to the stock exchange its renewable platforms—geothermal and hydro—delivered higher earnings as a result of better operating income and lower interest expense.

Revenues also increased 23 percent in 2022 to $2.667 billion (P144.1 billion) from $2.167 billion (P106.3 billion) in the previous year.

The company derived higher revenues from increased volume of electricity sales and elevated fuel and Wholesale Electricity Spot Market prices.

“First Gen managed to produce better earnings for 2022, despite lower earnings in the first nine months. We saw EDC (Energy Development Corp.) make a strong recovery from the better performance of its geothermal plants, while the hydro platform delivered stable income,” First Gen president and chief operating officer Francis Giles Puno said.

“The natural gas platform was able to contain its fuel supply curtailment issues from Malampaya, and was able to sell more power in 2022. This led to a minimal decline in net income in the gas portfolio,” Puno said.

The natural gas portfolio accounted for 66 percent of First Gen’s total consolidated revenues, while 31 percent came from EDC’s geothermal, wind and solar plants.

The remaining 3 percent came from the company’s hydro plants.

First Gen said its natural gas platform reported a 4-percent decrease in recurring earnings in 2022 to $190 million (P10.3 billion) from $198 million (P9.7 billion) in 2021.

The 97-MW Avion power plant’s Unit 1 experienced unscheduled outages due to turbine damage in December 2021 and was brought back to operations by February 2022.

High fuel prices negatively affected Avion’s margins for its merchant power sales.

First Gen said the gas platform also paid higher income taxes and increased interest expense compared to the previous year amid the high interest rate environment.

It said the geothermal power plants under EDC enjoyed higher sales and operating income on increase in WESM sales and higher electricity prices from its contracts.