Aboitiz Power profits grow by a third to P5.7B

Profits of Aboitiz Power Corp. grew by almost a third last year as a result of brisk power generation and distribution sales. In a statement, the company said its generation business, whose income went up by more than two-thirds to P4.7 billion, accounted for 82 percent of its 2009 income of P5.7 billion. The net income of its distribution business, meanwhile, increased by 6 percent to P1.6 billion last year. Exluding one-time gains, the company’s income grew by 13 percent to P5.3 billion last year. Aboitiz Power said generated power sales almost tripled last year, mainly due to improved operation of its hydropower assets following higher rainfall during the year. It also cited sales from the full operation of its 100-megawatt (MW) Binga hydropower plant, Tiwi-Makban geothermal plants and the Pagbilao coal-fired power plant, whose combined energy sales accounted for more than half of the total for the year. The company also said distributed electricity sales had gone up by 6 percent, with both residential and industrial customers increasing consumption by 7 percent and 5 percent, respectively. "The group’s customer base still expanded with the residential segment growing by 5 percent and nonresidential [sector] inching up by 1 percent," Aboitiz Power said. Strong gains in the third and fourth quarters offset the impact of unrecovered costs in March 2009, which resulted from higher National Power Corp. (Napocor) grid rates, it added. For the third quarter alone, Aboitiz Power’s net income went up by almost two-thirds to P1.9 billion due to the revaluation of its dollar loans as a result of a stronger peso. The firm gained P483 million from this, as well as P103 million in reversed Napocor charges and one-time transaction costs worth P47 million. The company’s core net income, which excludes these gains, grew by almost a tenth to P1.3 billion in the last quarter. Aboitiz Power shares were unchanged at P11 apiece on Thursday. — N.P. Aquino, GMANews.TV