Aboitiz sees healthy biz growth

PUBLICLY listed Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. (AEV) sees healthy growth in all of its core businesses this year. During its shareholders' meeting Monday, company officials announced that AEV will be spending P42 billion this year on its power business and P2 billion on its food and banking businesses.

AEV president and chief executive officer Erramon Aboitiz said the capital expenditures (capex) set for the year will facilitate continued expansion of its power business as well as the improvement and expansion of its food and banking businesses.

AEV ended 2010 with consolidated revenues of P75 billion, a 113 percent increase from 2009.

Its consolidated net income last year was P21.9 billion.

The company attributed the growth to the full-year contributions of AboitizPower's acquisitions in 2009.

Aboitiz reported that the company's power business contributed P19.1 billion or 85 percent of its total earnings. The company's banking and food units contributed 12 percent and seven percent respectively, offsetting the negative share of the Integrated Transport and Logistics Group.

He said, "2010 was an exceptionally remarkable year for AboitizPower."

The company's power business closed the year with a net income of P25 billion. Its power generation business, which accounted for 93 percent of total revenues, earned P24.4 billion last year.

He said the performance can be credited to improvements in both sales volume and pricing.

He said the increased capacity allowed them to sell 9,762-gigawatt hours of electricity in 2010. As of last year, AboitizPower’s attributable capacity was at 2,051 megawatts.

Aboitiz said optimizing the output of the company's generating assets was important because it allowed the company to sell “substantial quantities” of power to the Luzon spot market when, in stretches in 2010, conditions drove spot prices higher.

He said their two power barges in Mindanao and the commissioning of Sibulan hydro also eased the power shortages in Mindanao.

Published in the Sun.Star Davao newspaper on May 18, 2011.