Nickel Asia Corporation is investing an additional P2.92 billion in Emerging Power, Inc. (EPI) to raise its stake in its renewable energy subsidiary to 95.8 percent.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the firm said its Board of Directors has approved the planned investment which will be made through a subscription to additional common shares of EPI.

EPI shall utilize the additional investment for its operations, operating expenses of EPI affiliate Biliran Geothermal Incorporated, operating expenses of EPI subsidiary Mindoro Geothermal Power Corporation, and EPI’s investments in the projects of its other subsidiaries.

The fresh funds will also be used for EPI’s investments in Greenlight Renewables Holdings, Inc., its joint venture with Shell Overseas Investments B.V..

EPI, on a consolidated basis, registered a 60 percent increase in revenues to P393.67 million and a 51 percent increase in EBITDA of P239.50 million for the first nine months of 2022.

This was primarily due to a 56 percent year-on-year increase in the generation capacity of its operating arm Jobin-SQM Inc. (JSI) to 79,022-megawatt hours after the completion of its 38-MW expansion last June, bringing its total capacity to 100 MW.

JSI logged a net income of P72.83 million, allowing EPI to trim its losses to P133 million from the same period last year, a 53-percent reduction thanks to higher economies of scale and improved market conditions.

For its part, Nickel Asia announced a 12 percent improvement in its unaudited attributable net income to P6.90 billion in the first nine months of 2022 from the P6.17 billion earned in the same period of 2021.

The firm said that, despite the lower ore sales volume sold during the period, revenues inched up 2 percent to P21.51 billion from P21.03 billion in 2021, owed largely to higher nickel ore prices and favorable exchange rates.

NAC’s five operating mines sold a combined 12.44 million wet metric tons (WMT) of nickel ore during the first nine months of last year, a decrease of 14 percent from 14.44 million WMT in the same period in 2021.

The drop in sales volume was almost in direct proportion to unrealized workable days caused by unfavorable weather that adversely affected the Company’s mining operations during the period.

The weighted average nickel ore sales price during the period increased by 5 percent to $29.46 per WMT against $28.05 per WMT in the same period of 2021. The company realized P54.22 per US dollar from these nickel ore sales, a 10-percent increase from P49.17 in 2021.

“Despite the challenges in our mining operations due to adverse weather conditions at our mine sites, the favorable LME nickel price and strong US dollar helped drive revenues up by 2 percent from the prior year,” said NAC President and CEO Martin Antonio G. Zamora.