The Aboitiz Group is optimistic its Cebu-based subsidiaries will deliver positive results in 2019 on the back of several key innovation projects to be implemented this year.
Visayan Electric Co. Inc., the country’s second-largest privately-owned distribution utility and a unit of Aboitiz Power Corp., plans to complete this year the 890-meter phase 3 of its underground distribution system.
The line will add to UDS Phase 1, which consists of work from the Cebu provincial capitol site to Fuente Osmeña, and Phase 2 which covers work onward to P. del Rosario Street.
“Aboitiz Power expects that its existing distribution utilities will continue to realize modest growth. It continuously seeks efficiency and improvements in its distribution utilities’ operations in order to maintain healthy margins,” said AboitizPower executive vice president Jaime Jose Aboitiz.
The second 170-MW unit of AboitizPower unit Therma Visayas Inc.’s baseload plant in Toledo City is also expected to come online next month. This follows the launch of the power plant’s first 170-MW unit in April 6.
Meanwhile, the rehabilitation of the 153.1-MW Naga Power Plant Complex in Naga City is ongoing. Therma Power Visayas Inc., which owns and manages the plant complex, plans to rehabilitate six bunker C-fed power units within the facility and expects to complete the overhaul by the latter part of 2020.
Other Cebu-based businesses of the group are also gearing up for expansion.
CitySavings, the thrift arm of Aboitiz banking and financial services unit Union Bank of the Philippines, will venture this year into bancassurance with Insular Life.
AboitizLand, meanwhile, aims to maintain its foothold in Cebu with five ongoing residential projects.
The company is optimistic residential sales will pick up in 2019 as it plans to launch new phases at Amoa, AboitizLand’s 60-hectare mid-market residential development in Compostela, Cebu and Priveya Hills, a 60-hectare lots in Bacayan, Talamban, Cebu City.
