AC Energy earnings surge to P3.75 billion

Danessa Rivera (The Philippine Star) - March 10, 2021 - 12:00am
https://www.philstar.com/business/2021/03/10/2083159/ac-energy-earnings-surge-p375-billion

MANILA, Philippines — AC Energy Corp. (ACEN) saw its net income surge to P3.75 billion last year on account of the full-year contribution of its power contracts.

This compares to the P132,873 profit recorded in 2019 and the P593,156 net loss in 2019.

Consolidated revenues rose 26 percent o P20.44 billion, bulk of which came from the sale of electricity.

On the other hand, cost and expenses were steady at P16 billion.

Of the total revenues, P13.6 billion came from power supply agreements (PSAs) while P6.67 billion were from power generation and trading.

In September 2019, ACEN—formerly AC Energy Philippines—won two Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) contracts worth 310 MW through a competitive selection process.

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

Under the baseload PSA, ACEN will supply 200 MW to Meralco for 10 years at an approved rate of P4.2366 per kilowatt-hour (kwh) regardless of the plant capacity factor.

For the mid-merit PSA, ACEN will supply 110 MW to Meralco for five years at an approved a rate of P4.8763 per kwh at 60 percent plant capacity factor.

ACEN president and CEO Eric Francia said most of the company’s plants are under bilateral contracts or feed in tariff (FIT) arrangements.

In 2019, 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 2019.

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

While the pandemic reduced the company’s off-take volumes, its plants continued to operate with skeletal crew to keep the plants running amid the imposition of lockdowns in Luzon and other parts of the country.

ACEN, the energy platform of Ayala Corp., is one of the fastest growing energy companies with over $1 billion of invested and committed equity in renewable and thermal energy in the Philippines and around the region.

The company aims to exceed five gigawatts of attributable capacity both here and abroad, and generate at least 50 percent of energy from renewables by 2025.