Aboitiz Power income slightly down in H1
By Myrna M. Velasco – July 27, 2022, 2:39 PM
from Manila Bulletin
The profitability of listed firm Aboitiz Power Corporation slightly declined by 2.0 percent to P10 billion in the first half this year from P10.1 billion in the same period last year.
Excluding the impact of liquidated damages, business interruption claims and typhoon Odette, Aboitiz Power said the first half of 2022 would have resulted in a 15 percent gain in core net income and a 23 percent percent gain in consolidated net income compared to the same period in 2021.
Within the January-June stretch this year, Aboitiz Power booked “non-recurring gains of P792 million during the period, primarily due to gains on TLI’s (Therma Luzon Inc.) hedge and the appreciation of US dollars versus the P5 million in non-recurring gains recorded during the same period in 2021.”
Aboitiz Power thus qualified that “without these one-off gains, the company’s core net income for the first half of 2022 was P9.2 billion, 9.0-percent lower than the P10.1 billion recorded in the same period of 2021.”
If reckoned on the second quarter this year, the company’s earnings had been significantly up by 79 percent to P7.1 billion from the year-ago level of P4 billion.
The company reported that it similarly posted non-recurring gains of P861 million within the period – still due to TLI’s hedge and the appreciation of the US dollars versus the local currency.
Aboitiz Power stressed the uptick in income within April-June this year had been “due to fresh contributions from GNPower Dinginin Ltd. Co.’s (GNPD) units 1 and 2, higher availability of the GNPower Mariveles Energy Center Ltd. Co. (GMEC) facility, timing windfall on the account of higher indices and higher water inflows.”
As noted by Aboitiz Power President and CEO Emmanuel V. Rubio, “we have seen an increase in peak demand in the Luzon and Visayas grids during the first half of 2022, exceeding levels from the past three years, including 2019, which was a pre-pandemic year.”
He added that the power firm “continues to ensure that our generation plants run optimally and that our incoming capacities are ready to support our customers’ energy needs.”
Rubio similarly sounded off confidence that “we will be able to maintain our high plant availability performance throughout the rest of the year, given the increasing economic activity across the country.”
The company’s power generation and retail electricity market segment registered 13 percent rise in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) to P23.1 billion from last year’s P20.5 billion, mainly attributed to higher availability of its coal plants in Bataan; plus higher water inflow for its hydro generating assets.
The power distribution sphere of the conglomerate’s business had been relatively anemic, with its EBITDA dipping 27-percent to P3.0 billion from the year-ago level of P4.1 billion.
“This was driven by delayed pass-through of higher generation charges,” the company explained; while noting that energy sales conversely increased by 1.0-percent to 2,778 gigawatt-hours within this year’s first half.
