The consolidated net income of listed firm Aboitiz Power Corporation in the nine-month stretch this year climbed by 24-percent to P19.5 billion from P15.7 billion on a comparative period last year.
For the third quarter alone, the company reported that its earnings expanded 72-percent to P9.6 billion versus P5.6 billion in the same period last year.
Aboitiz Power qualified though that its profit had been partly reinforced by non-recurring gains of P310 million; and without that factored in, the income from July to September should just have hovered at P9.2 billion.
For the nine-month period, Aboitiz Power stated that without the one-off gains, “core net income for the first nine months of 2022 was P18.3 billion, 17-percent higher than the P15.7 billion recorded in the same period in 2021.”
The combined earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of its power generation and retail electricity ventures jumped by 21-percent to P39 billion vis-à-vis last year’s P32.3 billion.
The escalation in earnings, according to the power firm, had been “primarily due to fresh contributions from GNPower Dinginin (GNPD) units 1 and 2, higher water inflows, and gains from commodity hedges,” as well as higher capacity availability from its GNPower Mariveles coal plant.
On the company’s distribution business, despite the 2.0-percent hike in overall energy sales; its EBITDA dropped by 22-percent to P4.8 billion from last year’s P6.1 billion – and that was primarily traced to the “delayed pass through of higher generation charges.”
The power firm conveyed that even in the midst of swelling commodity prices and the drop in the peso’s value, its “good planning and forecasting was able to manage its fuel costs, honor its fixed price contracts and protect its customers.”
Aboitiz Power President and CEO Emmanuel V. Rubio similarly cited the rise in energy demand in the past quarter, primarily in the Luzon and Visayas grids, which in the firm’s assessment, had already topped pre-pandemic levels.
“Our new capacities have been delivering much-needed energy to the grid during its commissioning period,” he stressed.
Rubio emphasized their company is “completely hedged on its fixed priced contracts which protected it in the midst of the coal price increase.”
Additionally, the Aboitiz Power chief executive indicated that “we have had a comprehensive hedging program for commodity and currency as early as 2018.“
Onward, he specified that “we look forward to reinforcing our support for the country’s growing power requirements,” adding that their continued focus will be on growing their renewable energy (RE) portfolio by the turn of the decade. ###