Alsons net income up 18% in January-September
BY LENIE LECTURA – NOVEMBER 22, 2022
from Business Mirror
Alcantara-led Alsons Consolidated Resources Inc., (ACR) reported an 18-percent increase in its net income at end-September this year as demand for electricity, particularly in Mindanao, grew.
From January to September this year, ACR posted P1.35 billion in net earnings from P1.14 billion recorded in the same period a year ago. Of the amount, net earnings for the third quarter surged over 140 percent to P658.22 million from last year’s P272.93 million.
Revenues in nine months stood at P9.25 billion and P3.85 billion in the third quarter alone. Revenue for this year was higher than 2021’s nine-month revenue of P7.05 billion and the third quarter revenue of P2.42 billion.
The steady rise in revenues from operations during this period was mainly due to the constant improvement in power demand in Mindanao, as day-to-day activities in the island continue to normalize and recover from the effects of the pandemic.
“We expect power demand in Mindanao to be stable for the rest of the year,” said ACR Deputy Chief Financial Officer Philip Edward Sagun.
ACR’s 210 megawatt (MW) Sarangani Energy Corp. (SEC) baseload power plant continued to be the key revenue and income driver for the company.
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.
Another key revenue contributor for ACR for this period was the continuing operation of the company’s 100 MW Western Mindanao Power Corp. (WMPC) diesel plant in Zamboanga City.
WMPC is the only major power generation facility in the Zamboanga Peninsula, providing power to Zamboanga City and supplying vital ancillary services to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines to help stabilize the power grid in the Western Mindanao Region.
ACR said it is now focused on building up its renewable energy capacity in the next few years, with around eight run-of-river hydroelectric power facilities in the company’s pipeline.
The first of these hydroelectric power plants is the 14.5 MW Siguil Hydro power plant currently under construction in Maasim, Sarangani, which is targeting to begin operations in 2023.
The next two hydro power facilities slated for development are a hydro power project in Zamboanga del Norte with a capacity of up to 21 MW, and a hydro power project in the Bago River in Negros Occidental with a planned capacity of up to 42 MW.
ACR Chairman and President Nicasio I. Alcantara had said that renewable energy sources would soon comprise at least half of ACR’s long-term energy mix.
The company currently has a portfolio of four power facilities with an aggregate capacity of 468 MW serving over eight million people in 14 cities and 11 provinces in the country’s second largest island.
