Despite the economic malady instigated by the Covid-19 pandemic, Alcantara-led firm Alsons Consolidated Resources Inc. (ACR) posted significant jump on its income to P1.66 billion in the three quarters this 2020, from last year’s leaner P578.70 million.

Given the brisk financial performance of the company, its net earnings attributable to the parent firm had likewise climbed to P360.59 million within the nine-month stretch versus P54.94 million a year ago.

On the revenue front, the Alcantara firm also posted upbeat outcome, with its top line increasing to P7.31 billion within January-September from last year’s P4.67 billion.

For longer-term portfolio growth and financial vigor of Alsons, executives of the company noted that both top and bottom lines could be shored up by pipelined investments, primarily in the renewable energy sector.

The firm, in particular, is lining up two hydropower facilities that it shall be advancing to commercial developments – these are the 22-megawatt Siayan (Sindangan) hydro project in Zamboanga del Norte; and the 42MW Bago hydro plant in Negros Occidental.

As noted by ACR Executive Vice President Tirso G. Santillan, “the company’s continuing pursuit of new power projects will help in the country’s economic recovery,” and their tangible contribution to that is their ongoing 14.5MW Siguil hydropower project in Sarangani; as well as the 105MW San Ramon coal-fired power project in Zamboanga City.

He specified that through these two projects, the company would be able to stimulate the creation of new jobs for Filipinos that are still reeling hard from the crippling impact of the pandemic; and will also consequently underpin economic activities in the areas covered by the power plant ventures.

Onward, the company indicated that it will push for seven more RE run-of-river hydropower projects – and these are already on various stages of developments.

And with the company’s robust financial performance within this year’s nine-month period, ACR Deputy Chief Financial Officer Philip Edward B. Sagun noted that the company “remains cautiously optimistic” on the remainder of the year.

“We expect higher revenues and profit margins from the full commercial operations of the Sarangani energy plant,” he said, while adding that the Alcantara firm is looking at reaping “the benefits of lower operating costs as we continue to maintain cost efficiency measures.”

The major income driver for the Alcantara firm has been its 210MW Sarangani Energy Corporation coal-fired power plant – a two-phased US$570 million power plant development that reached commercial operations in 2016 for the first unit; and 2019 for the second unit.