Conglomerate Ayala Corp. said net income in the first quarter of 2018 rose 10 percent to P7.7 billion, fueled by the robust earnings growth of the property and power subsidiaries.
Ayala said in a disclosure to the stock exchange equity earnings from core business units grew 9 percent to ₱9.2 billion, boosted by contributions of Ayala Land Inc. which jumped 15 percent, as well as AC Energy which nearly doubled during the period.
“The sustained growth momentum in our portfolio reflects the progress we have made in our long-term diversification strategy to establish new pillars of growth and expand into new markets,” AC president and chief operating officer Fernando Zobel de Ayala said.
“While we remain positive about the domestic environment and the concentration of our investments will continue to be in the Philippines, we are establishing a growing presence regionally and globally in sectors where we can bring our expertise and capital as opportunities arise,” Zobel added.
The conglomerate’s power generation arm, AC Energy, nearly doubled its net profit in the first quarter of the year to ₱593 million, lifted by the robust contributions of its Indonesia investment and thermal and renewable platforms.
AC Energy had a total attributable capacity of around 1,600 megawatts from thermal and renewable plants in operations and under construction as of the end of the first quarter.
The company plans to expand the capacity to 2,000 megawatts by 2020, with 1,000 mw coming from renewable sources, and raise the net income to ₱5 billion by 2020.
AC Industrials, meanwhile, registered a net income of P217 million in the first quarter, down 36 percent from a year ago, as the growth in electronics manufacturing and vehicle retails segments was offset by one-off expense and startup costs of new acquisitions.
Property unit Ayala Land Inc. earlier reported a net income of P6.5 billion, up 17 percent from a year ago, primarily driven by the residential and commercial leasing segments.
Bank of the Philippine Islands recorded a net income of ₱6.2 billion in the first quarter, flat from the previous year, as lower non-interest income offset the improvement in the bank’s core banking business.