Aboitiz Power Q1 Consolidated Income Down 9%

Aboitiz Power on Thursday announced that its consolidated net income for the first quarter of 2018 is 9 percent lower from the same period last year.

First quarter’s consolidated net income slipped to only PHP4 billion from PHP4.4 billion last year. The firm pointed out the non-recurring foreign exchange losses on dollar denominated liabilities of PHP1.2 billion, against the non-recurring loss of PHP57 million in the same period in 2017.

Despite this, the firm noted that it still sees “modest growth” in both its generation and distribution businesses.

Antonio Moraza, Aboitiz Power president, said the firm is optimistic to see improvements in plant reliability and availability, which, according to him, had significant financial contributions to the firm. “We will continue improving our power plants, and invest in technologies to also improve services of our distribution utilities,” he said.

At present, Aboitiz Power has distribution utilities operating across the country. Moraza added that the company will complete several other power plant projects this year to add to those already in operation.

Meanwhile, for the first quarter, the firm’s capacity sold have increased by 22 percent, from 2,630 megawatts in the same period in 2017, to 3,215 megawatts. The increased number of contracts have contributed to this increase, Aboitiz Power said.

The firm’s “attributable sales” in the distribution group for the first quarter was 1,298 gigawatt-hours. This is 7 percent higher from the first quarter of 2017.

Higher electricity sales across all customer segments contributed to the increase in the firm’s EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization). Consolidated EBITDA for distribution business was PHP1.8 billion, 4 percent higher compared to same period in 2017. (PNA)