Published May 3, 2019, 10:00 PM By Myrna M.
Velasco
Costs relating to purchase of
‘replacement power’ in the spot market had pulled down by 9.0-percent the
consolidated net income of Aboitiz Power Corporation in the first quarter to
P3.6 billion from a heftier P4.0 billion in the same period last year.
The lower profitability was logged
amid the reduction in the company’s one-off losses at P440 million compared to
the higher P1.2 billion booked in the same period last year.
Aboitiz Power has emphasized that
“spot market prices were exceptionally high during the first three months of
2019, and the company purchased replacement power due to outages and
over-contracting in preparation for Therma Visayas Inc. coming on-line.”
The Aboitiz firm is referring to its
340MW newly-commissioned coal-fired power plant in Toledo, Cebu that has
already been contributing to the shared power supply of interconnected Luzon
and Visayas grids.
On the basis of consolidated
earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), the
company posted 13-percent lower to P10.4 billion from the year-ago level of
P11.9 billion.
On its one-off losses, Aboitiz Power
indicated that without such, core net income for the period should have been at
P4.1 billion – but that is still 21-percent lower partly also due to the
procurement of replacement power.
As emphasized by Aboitiz Power Chief
Operating Officer Emmanuel V. Rubio “it has been a challenging first quarter,”
in reference to the tight supply conditions straining Luzon grid and has been
putting anew the generation companies in the public lens as the villains of the
rotating brownouts.
Rubio, nevertheless, emphasized that
“despite this, our customers remain our top priority and we ensured delivery of
replacement power from the spot market.”
Combining its power generation
business and the growing core of its retail electricity market, Aboitiz Power
noted that its EBITDA had been at P8.6 billion within January to March this
year – that was still down by 15-percent to P10.1 billion vis-à-vis last year’s
figure.
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