AC Energy expects positive bottomline this year

Danessa Rivera April 21, 2020 - 12:00am

https://www.philstar.com/business/2020/04/21/2008553/ac-energy-expects-positive-bottomline-year

MANILA, Philippines — AC Energy Philippines Inc. expects a turnaround in its bottomline this year despite the negative impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 pandemic in its operations.

During the company’s virtual stockholders’ meeting yesterday, AC Energy Philippines president and CEO Eric Francia announced the company’s goal of a positive bottomline this year.

The company ended 2019 with a loss of P417 million.

“We expect the turnaround initiative to prosper and are aiming for a positive bottomline by 2020,” Francia said.

Last year, the company underwent a major transformation when the Ayala group acquired Phinma Energy Corp. from the Del Rosario family for P6.3 billion.

The deal was cleared by the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) in April last year.

Despite the ill effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Francia said the company continues to execute its turnaround plan and establish a sustainable growth path.

“The rapid pace of progress strengthened the company’s fundamentals, allowing us to be more resilient amidst the current global health and socio economic crisis that we are all confronted with,” he said.

The COVID pandemic has had a significant impact on the company’s business environment, with between 30 to 40 percent decline in the demand for power because industries and commercial business are on hold.

“This has resulted in some reduction in ACEPH’s off-take volumes,” Francia said.

However, AC Energy Philippines’ plants continue to operate with skeletal crew to keep the plants running amid the imposition of the enhanced community quarantine in Luzon and other parts of the country.

“Most of our plants are under bilateral contracts or feed in tariff (FIT) arrangements so our commercial operations team is working closely with our customers and suppliers to make sure we maintain a balanced portfolio in terms of energy supplied and energy delivered,” Francia said.

In September last year, AC Energy Philippines won two Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) contracts worth 310 MW through a competitive selection process (CSP).

The contracts were based on a five year and 10 year tenor, providing steady and predictable cash flows to the company.

In terms of projects under construction, some projects of AC Energy Philippines have faced some inevitable delays due to restrictions on working onsite due to the quarantine.

It is currently working on three projects totaling 330 MW in capacity, namely the 120-MW Alaminos Solar Plant, 60-MW Palauig Solar Plant, and the 150-MW Ingrid Diesel Plant.