AboitizPower posts P3.7 billion in first-half earnings

Aboitiz Power Corporation reported a net income of ₱3.7 billion for the first half of 2020, 57% lower versus ₱8.6 billion recorded last year.

The company recognized non-recurring gains of ₱224 million during the relevant period, compared to non-recurring gains of ₱121 million during the same period last year, due to net foreign exchange gains on the revaluation of dollar denominated liabilities.

Without these one-off gains, the company’s core net income for the first half of 2020 was ₱3.5 billion, 59% lower than the ₱8.5 billion recorded during the same period in 2019. This was also the result of lower earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) due to lower demand resulting from the enforcement of COVID-related community quarantines and outages.

The company also had additional tax expenses following the expiration of the income tax holiday incentives of Therma South, Inc. (TSI), and GNPower Mariveles Coal Plant Ltd. Co. (GMCP) and additional interest expense from the company’s bond and loan that were availed during the fourth quarter of 2019.

"As the nation continues to face challenges posed by the pandemic, we are optimistic about our growth strategy and we remain fully committed to supporting economic recovery and delivering value to our customers and stakeholders, now and for the longer term," said Emmanuel V. Rubio, AboitizPower president and chief executive officer.

Generation and Retail Electricity Supply

AboitizPower’s generation and retail supply business recorded EBITDA of ₱14.8 billion in the first half of 2020, 17% lower than the ₱17.8 billion recorded last year.

This is mainly due to the reduced demand resulting from COVID-related community quarantines, as well as forced outages in the first half of the year involving Pagbilao units 1-3, TSI Unit 2, and GMCP Unit 2.

These reductions offset the decrease in purchased power costs during the first half of 2020, and revenues from Therma Visayas, Inc. (TVI)  and Therma Mobile, Inc. (TMO), which were both online since January of this year, as opposed to the second quarter of last year. Moreover, EBITDA for the first quarter of 2019 also included income from the Generation Rate Adjustment Mechanism and Incremental Currency Exchange Rate Adjustment, which were not available as income during the first half.

Capacity sold increased by 12% to 3,388 megawatts (MW) from 3,035 MW in the same period last year. This was due to increased contracting levels driven by the new capacity of TVI and TMO. Because of the lower demand brought by the pandemic and forced outages, energy sold declined by 6% to 10,764 gigawatt-hours (GWh) from  11,460 GWh.

Distribution

AboitizPower’s distribution business recorded EBITDA of ₱3.7 billion, 0.5% lower versus the same period last year. Energy sales also decreased by 7% to 2,629 GWh from 2,842 GWh. This was driven by lower energy consumption from the commercial and industrial customer segments because of community quarantines.