With knocked out power demand in recent months because of the economic torment of the pandemic, the income of SPC Power Corporation skidded 27.6-percent to P436.4 million in the second quarter of the year versus P602.6 million within the same stretch last year.
“All of the group’s business segments were affected by weak demand of industrial and commercial customers as the government implemented strict lockdown protocols to arrest the coronavirus outbreak during the period,” the listed power firm explained.
The profit logged for the April-June period, according to the company, translates to P0.29 earnings per share, trimmed from a heftier P0.40 in the same period last year.
On revenues, there had been significant decline of 52.4-percent to P428.1 million from P898.7 million in the same second quarter duration last year, and that was mainly traced to “costs that go with lower volume of transactions and cost containment measures.”
The power generation segment of SPC Power posted substantial income decline of 55.5-percent to P85.2 million vis-à-vis a rosier base of P191.6 million in the same 2019 period.
Further, the distribution component of its business had tracked similar bottom line downtrend – registering a net loss of P10.7 million, hence, completely wiping out the P6.4 million income a year ago.
SPC Power emphasized “only its residential sales expanded by 16-percent as customers used more electricity while kept indoors due to quarantine restrictions.”
Conversely, the firm’s industrial and commercial sales volume, which accounted for 55-percent of its sales pre-lockdown phase, haplessly dipped by 29-percent.
The company’s consolidated administrative and general expenses likewise took a steep plunge of 46.7-percent to P37.6 million in the second quarter from P70.7 million in the same three-month period last year.
SPC Power said it booked “lower expenses for business development; taxes and licenses; professional fees; transportation and travel; repairs and maintenance; and entertainment, amusement and recreation.”
In addition, its interest income had been down by 26.7-percent to P19.4 million from P26.4 million “because of lower effective interest rate and lower amount of excess cash invested in short-term money market placements after payment of cash dividends in the last quarter of 2019 and in the second quarter of the current year.”
Service income, on the other, had been classified “nil” in the second quarter compared to P36.4 million in the same period last year “due to lesser other projects undertaken during the current period.”