AboitizPower Hikes 2015 Annual Net Income By 5%

Aboitiz Power Corporation (AboitizPower or the Company) grew its full-year 2015 income by 5%, from P16.7 billion to P17.6 billion. This translated to earnings per share of P2.39. The Company registered a net non-recurring loss of P762 million (versus last year’s loss of P136 million) due to the revaluation of consolidated dollar-denominated assets and liabilities resulting from the movements in the peso-dollar exchange rates. Adjusting for these one-offs, the Company’s core net income for 2015 amounted to P18.4 billion, up by 9% YoY.

Business Segments

Power Generation

On a full-year basis, the generation business accounted for 79% of earnings contributions from AboitizPower’s business segments, recording an income share of P13.9 billion for 2015, up 3% YoY. Netting out one-off items, AboitizPower’s generation business generated P14.8 billion for the period, which was 9% higher than last year. The growth was attributable to the higher sales volume from the coal and large hydro groups that offset the decrease in revenues from the geothermal group due to steam decline. Moreover, the impact of Magat, Binga, and Therma Marine plants’ ITH (income tax holidays) expiration were offset by the large hydro group’s lower financing cost and the geothermal group’s and oil business unit’s lower operating expenses.

For full year 2015, AboitizPower’s attributable net generation rose by 11% YoY, from 11,272 GWh to 12,550 GWh, as electricity sold through bilateral contracts, which made up 91% of total energy sold during the period, expanded by 18% to 11,383 GWh. On the other hand, spot market sales decreased by 28% from 1,612 GWh to 1,168 GWh.

In terms of capacity, higher sales through bilateral contracts and ancillary services resulted to a 6% YoY increase in AboitizPower’s attributable sales to 1,900 MW. The new capacities from Therma South and Hedcor Sabangan, along with the higher ancillary revenues of the large hydros and higher dispatch of the oil business unit, more than offset the decrease in APRI’s available capacity due to steam decline. Meanwhile, ancillary sales improved by 41% due to better water inflows as compared to the previous year.

The completion of the construction of the 14-MW Sabangan run-of-river hydroelectric and 260-MW (net) Davao Coal resulted to an increase in the Company’s net attributable sellable capacity to 2,532 MW.

“We remain on track with our project pipeline as we welcomed new capacity from a number of power plants last year. This puts us well on the path to hitting 4,000 MW in national capacity by 2020 to meet the country’s energy needs,” Antonio R. Moraza, AboitizPower President and Chief Operating Officer, said.

“Our portfolio of power plants composed of a right mix of renewable and non-renewable technology is a testament to our commitment to provide reliable, ample, and reasonably priced power with the least impact on our environment and our host communities,” Moraza said.

Power Distribution

The power distribution group’s earnings share for 2015 increased by 19%, from P3.2 billion to P3.8 billion. This is equivalent to 21% of earnings contributions from AboitizPower’s business segments. The group’s gross margin on a per kWh basis in 2015 decreased to P1.61 from P1.71 a year ago. This was brought about by the continued operations of Davao Light’s embedded plant to meet the shortfall in the Mindanao grid. Strong demand growth of lower-margin industrial customers also contributed to the decline in the per kilowatt margins. The overall improved performance of the group is mainly from higher attributable electricity sales which increased by 6% YoY, from 4,480 GWh to 4,759 GWh as energy sales grew across all customer segments as well as the full year contributions from LiMA EnerZone, which was acquired last year.