Semirara Mining and Power Corp. a record net income of P12 billion in 2016, up 42 percent from P8.47 billion in 2015.
Semirara Mining, the country’s biggest coal mining company, attributed the strong financial results last year to higher coal and power sales.
“We delivered a solid 2016 performance despite market headwinds and operational challenges. Much of the credit goes to our people, host community, investors and government partners,” said Semirara Mining president and chief operating officer Victor Consunji.
Over half of the consolidated income, or P6.6 billion, came from the power segment, with Sem-Calaca Power Corp. and Southwest Luzon Power Generation Corp. contributing P2.9 billion and P3.7 billion, respectively.
Sem-Calaca owns the a 600 megawatt coal-fired power plant in Calaca, Batangas, which the Consunji Group acquired from the government.
Southwest Luzon, meanwhile, is a 300 MW coal-fired expansion in the same area.
Southwest Luzon started commercial operations in the second quarter of 2016, offsetting the deficiency and downtimes of the Sem-Calaca coal plants and resulting in total generation of 4,292 gigawatthours, up 3 percent from 4,170 GWh in the previous year.
The coal segment delivered P5.4 billion in net earnings after eliminating entries, an 86-percent increase year-on-year despite weak global prices in the first half of the year.
The composite average price of coal fell 9 percent to P1,885 per ton from P1,943 per ton in 2015.
Semirara said the coal segment’s growth was driven by record sales of 12.8 million metric tons, up 52 percent from 8.4 million MT in 2015.
Low-grade coal supplied to Southwest Luzon more than doubled, effectively pulling down the average price of coal.
“Low-grade coal sold to own power plants more than doubled in 2016 at 1.95 million tons from 955,000 tons in 2015, thus pulling down average price,” the company said.
The Semirara board, meanwhile, approved the declaration of stock dividends amounting to P3.2 billion divided into 3.2 billion shares at the par value of P1 per share or three common shares for every one common share held from the unrestricted retained earnings of the corporation as of December 31, 2016.
The board authorized the company president to determine the record and payment date for the stock dividends.
The stock dividend declaration is subject to approval during the annual stockholders’ meeting on May 2.