Aboitiz Power disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange that core net income in the first semester amounted to PHP 9.9 billion, down by 23% YoY.
The power generation business contributed PHP 10.2 billion to the income, down by 20% YoY. The power generation business accounts for 91% of earnings from Aboitiz Power's business segments.
It said that "Once adjusted for one off items, AboitizPower's generation business registered close to PHP 9.5 billion for the period, 27% lower compared to the same period last year."
Aboitiz Power said earnings from power generation declined due to the lower prevailing prices at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market. The average price of electricity in the WESM dropped 55% in the January to June the period because of low demand for electricity in Luzon.
It said that "This consequently resulted in a year on year decline in the power generation group's average selling price. There was also a 7% decline in year to date net generation from 4,984 giga watt hours in 2010 to 4,640 GWh."
The company said the lower WESM prices, however, were tempered by Aboitiz Power's move to reduce its exposure to the spot market with the signing of additional bilateral contracts
Aboitiz Power said net profit in the second quarter rose 4% to PHP 5.5 billion. It said that "In this quarter, movements in exchange rates resulted in a PHP 36 million non recurring gain due to the revaluation of consolidated dollar denominated loans and placements and a one off gain due to a cost recovery by an associate company relating to its fuel importation."
Aboitiz Power's attributable generation capacity stood at 2,331 MWs by end June 2011, up by 16% YoY. The company said the completion of the 16.5 MW Hedcor Sibulan in July 2010 and the last unit of a Cebu coal power plant boosted capacity.
The company also assumed full ownership and control over the 70 MW Bakun hydro facility in May, acquired the 242 MW power barges in Navotas in the same month and partially completed the rehabilitation of the Ambuklao hydropower facility in June.
Mr Erramon Aboitiz president & CEO of Aboitiz Power said that "Favorable developments with respect to our Greenfield hydro projects, the recent rebirth of the Ambuklao Hydro, as well as the significant strides made by the Subic and Davao clean coal Greenfield plants are demonstrating that AboitizPower's project development pipeline is full and will provide earnings growth over the next few years. The recent acquisition of the Navotas barges will also provide an interesting flexibility to our portfolio of assets."
Aboitiz Power's distribution business contributed PHP 1 billion in the first half, up by 74%, due to increase in sales to 1,814 giga watt hours from 1,753 GWh.
(Sourced from www.manilastandardtoday.com)
