Power, mining boost DMCI’s income in H1

Business Mirror
by VG Cabuag - August 18, 2015

ENGINEERING conglomerate DMCI Holdings Inc. said its net income grew by 28 percent during the first half of the year, primarily boosted by its power and mining unit.

DMCI Chairman and President Isidro Consunji, however, said the company cannot determine yet how much drop in income of Semirara Mining and Power Corp. would be in the succeeding months after an accident last month killed nine of its workers.

Semirara’s coal-mining operations in Semirara Island remained closed due to the incident. The company said it recorded P6.6 billion in consolidated net income in the first six months of the year, a 28-percent increase from the P5.1 billion reported last year.

“We delivered a good first half performance and remain on track to meet our profit guidance of P12 billion,” Consunji said.

Net income contributions from Semirara Mining jumped 78 percent to P2.7 billion compared to P1.5 billion during the same period last year. This was due to the strong rebound of its power generation segment.

Gross power generation surged 143 percent to 2,165 gigawatt-hour (GWh) from 893 GWh, while cost of power sales decreased by a quarter to P3.7 billion from P5 billion. With its power units operating reliably this year, Semirara was able to revert to its normal costs levels.

Higher billed volume and improved operational efficiency pushed profit contribution from affiliate Maynilad Water Services Inc. to grow 22 percent from P943 million to P1.1 billion.

DMCI mining contribution was up by 24 percent to P454 million from P365 million due to higher volume of nickel shipments.

Profit contribution from DMCI Power expanded by 72 percent to P215 million from P125 million last year. Commercial operations of its new 15-megawatt bunker-fired power plant in Oriental Mindoro accounted for the significant growth.

Earnings from D.M. Consunji Inc. declined 44 percent to P333 million due to slowdown in infrastructure project accomplishment and lower variation orders.

The slowdown was due to right-of-way and utility relocation issues. Meanwhile, approved variation orders booked during the first half reached P170 million compared to P390 million last year.

At the end of the first half, the company’s net debt stood at P23 billion, while equity reached P68 billion, putting its consolidated net debt-to-equity at 0.34 to 1. source