EDC net income for H1 reaches P4.1 billion

By Lenie Lectura - August 13, 2018

https://businessmirror.com.ph/edc-net-income-for-h1-reaches-p4-1-billion/

ENERGY Development Corp. (EDC), the country’s largest geothermal and wind-energy company, posted P4.1 billion in net income from January to June this year, 21 percent lower than the P5.2 billion recorded in the same period a year ago.

Revenues also declined 3 percent to P17.1 billion from P17.7 billion in the same period last year.

EDC’s lower first-half performance was mainly caused by Typhoon Urduja last December.

“Our first-half results, similar to what we communicated to the market during our first-quarter earnings announcement, were largely dominated by the impact of Typhoon Urduja that hit Leyte island, site of our biggest business unit, last December.

Leyte’s generation volume was down by 18.5 percent for the first six months,” EDC Chief Financial Officer Nestor Vasay said.

However, the company is expecting to post higher revenue and profit in the second half of the year.

“We expect this downtrend to reverse in the second half of 2018, as our major power plants in Leyte are now back in service. We also see our operational efficiency initiatives starting to pay off,” Vasay added.

During the period, all other units posted higher revenues, led by its Burgos Wind (15 percent) and Bacman (10 percent) units. Burgos, it said, continued to track its record performance last year, while Bacman benefited from its efforts to mostly contract its generation capacity.

Also, EDC’s financial position remained strong with cash balance of P16.1 billion.

EDC currently delivers 1,472 megawatts of renewable energy to the country in the form of hydro, solar and wind power apart from geothermal. EDC’s 150-MW Burgos Wind Farm is also the biggest in the country, while its almost 1,200-MW geothermal installed capacity accounts for 61 percent of the country’s total installed geothermal capacity.

EDC operates the Unified Leyte geothermal power facility in the same province. It consists of the 125-MW Upper Mahiao plant, the 232.5-MW Matlibog plant, the 180-MW Mahanagdong plant and the 51-MW Leyte optimization plants. It also operates the 112.5-MW Tongonan geothermal.

The company has allocated P7 billion in capital expenditure this year mainly to improve reliability of its steam plants.