ACR ‘cautiously optimistic’ on performance this year
By Lenie Lectura – July 24, 2020
from Business Mirror
Alcantara-led Alsons Consolidated Resources Inc. (ACR) is optimistic that its business will perform better this year, mainly due to the full operation of its coal power plant, which has been the company’s key revenue and income driver since last year.
“For the rest of the year, we are cautiously optimistic on the financial performance of the company,” said ACR Deputy Chief Finance Officer Philip Edward Sagun during the company’s virtual annual stockholders’ meeting.
In particular, he said the company expects higher revenues and profit margins from the full operations of Sarangani Energy Corporation Unit 2 (SEC2).
Last year, ACR’s 210 MW Sarangani Energy Corp.’s (SEC) baseload coal-fired power plant in Maasim, Sarangani began operating at full capacity when the plant’s second 105 MW section came online.
SEC currently provides power to key areas in Mindanao including Sarangani Province, General Santos, Cagayan de Oro, Iligan, Dipolog, Dapitan, Pagadian, Samal, Tagum, Kidapawan, and Butuan. The $570-million SEC plant is the single largest investment in Sarangani Province and the entire Region 12.
Apart from this, Sagun said the company continues to realize incremental revenues from ancillary services.
“We will also reap the benefits of lower operating costs, as we maintain cost-efficiency measures. We have initiated to become more competitive and further improve profit margins,” he added.
In 2019, ACR posted a consolidated full-year net income of P938 million, from P563 million in 2018. ACR’s 2019 net earnings attributable to the parent rose to P148 million, from P94 million in 2018. Full-year revenues for 2019 were at P6.8 billion, from P6.66 billion the previous year.
For 2020, ACR reported revenues of P2.21 billion in the first quarter, from P1.22 billion in the same period last year. Net earnings in the first quarter rose to P310 million, from P104 million in the same period in 2019. The company’s net earnings attributable to the parent also climbed to P55 million, from P6 million in the first quarter of 2019.
The company’s various power projects remain on-track to begin commercial operations as scheduled due to the quick recovery of Mindanao from the Covid-19 pandemic.
ACR’S projects in the pipeline are the P4.5-billion 14.5 MW Siguil Hydro run of river hydroelectric power plant in Maasim, Sarangani Province and the 105 MW San Ramon Power Inc. (SRPI) baseload coal-fired power plant in Zamboanga City.
Construction for the Siguil Hydro plant—ACR’s first foray into renewable energy—is currently in full-swing and the plant will be ready to start operating in 2022 as scheduled to provide power to Sarangani Province, General Santos City and key municipalities of South Cotabato.
The engineering, procurement and construction contract for the SRPI plant will be signed within the third quarter with construction expected to begin in early 2021. The P16-billion SRPI plant is slated to start operating in 2023 as scheduled to deliver baseload power to Zamboanga City and nearby areas.
For the long-term, the company will focus on renewables with seven more of run of fiver hydroelectric plants in various stages of development. The next two hydro facilities in the pipeline are the 22MW Siayan hydro plant in Zamboanga del Norte and the 42MW Bago hydro plant in Negros Occidental.
Despite the pandemic, ACR Executive Vice President Tirso G. Santillan Jr. said the power plants continue to provide power to its customers serving over eight million people in 14 cities and 11 provinces in Mindanao.
The company, which is Mindanao’s first private-sector power generator, has a portfolio of four power facilities with an aggregate capacity of 468 MW. Apart from power generation, ACR is also engaged in property development.
The company is in partnership with Ayala Land Inc. in the development of Azuela Cove, a 26-hectare mixed-use township project in Davao City.
