Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. said Tuesday net income jumped 135 percent in the first nine months to P19.5 billion from P8.3 billion in the same period last year, led by its power business.
Core net income reached P19.5 billion, up 133-percent year-on-year.
Power accounted for 58 percent of the total income contributions from AEV’s strategic business units in the nine-month period, while financial services shared 26 percent. Income contributions from food, infrastructure and real estate SBUs represented 7 percent, 6 percent and 3 percent, respectively.
“As we approach the end of 2021, we see the light at the end of the tunnel growing brighter in terms of the pandemic, and the Aboitiz Group’s performance trajectory continues to substantially improve throughout the current health crisis, posting figures that are again much higher than last year’s,” said Aboitiz Group president and chief executive Sabin Aboitiz in a statement.
“Our financial and cultural investments in innovative and agile thinking have paid off handsomely as we powered through the pandemic with strong performance indicators. This gives us every reason to believe that next year will be even better as COVID cases decrease, vaccinations increase and our new strategic partnership with Jera kicks into gear,” Aboitiz said.
He said AEV was looking forward to working closely with next year’s new administration “in defeating the virus by learning to function with it to help our country along the path to economic recovery.”
Aboitiz Power posted a net income of P15.7 billion in the first three quarters, or 124 percent higher than P7 billion it booked last year due to commissioning revenue from GNPower Dinginin Ltd. Co. Unit 1, higher water inflow for AboitizPower’s hydro plants, higher availability of the Therma Luzon Inc., Therma South Inc. and Therma Visayas Inc. facilities and higher spot market dispatch in compliance with the must-offer rule.
The company claimed liquidated damages for the delay in the construction of GNPD Unit 1 and received the final payment for business interruption claims resulting from GNPower Mariveles Energy Center Ltd. Co. and AP Renewables Inc. outages in previous years.
Aboitiz Power’s core net income reached P15.7 billion, up by 143 percent from the same period in 2020.
“Energy demand is continuously picking up as the country recovers from the pandemic. We look forward to the commercial operations of GNPD Unit 1 by end-November this year. This will deliver the much needed energy into the grid to meet the country’s growing demand. Unit 2 is expected to be synchronized by first quarter of 2022,” Aboitiz Power president and chief executive Emmanuel Rubio said.
“We are also excited about our pipeline of projects, which are mainly renewables and already in various stages of development. In addition to these new projects, our baseload plants have been performing well above benchmark targets for availability and reliability. This is to ensure that while we are aggressively pursuing renewables, we continue to serve the Philippines’ baseload requirements. We remain committed to balancing the reliability, cost-efficiency, and sustainability of our country’s energy system,” Rubio said.
Capacity sold in the first three quarters went up by 8 percent to 3,663 megawatts from 3,394 MW in the same period in 2020. Energy sold increased by 11 percent to 18,442 gigawatt-hours in the first three quarters from 16,689 gWh a year ago.
Aboitiz Power’s distribution business recorded an income share of P3.3 billion during the period, up 19 percent from a year earlier, driven by higher energy consumption resulting from recoveries in demand.
Union Bank of the Philippines’ income contribution to AEV amounted to P5.4 billion, por 26 percent higher than P4.3 billion it contributed in the same period in 2020. On a stand-alone basis, UnionBank and its subsidiaries recorded net income of P10.4 billion during the period, up by 26 percent from a year ago.
Non-listed food subsidiaries (Pilmico Foods Corp., Pilmico Animal Nutrition Corp. and Pilmico International Pte. Ltd. which includes Gold Coin Management Holdings Pte. Ltd.) contributed P1.5 billion to AEV in the first three quarters , up by 54 percent from P969 million recorded in the same period in 2020.
The farms business segment reported net income of P385 million during the period, recovering from a net loss of P703 million last year due to the depressed market performance of hogs in the previous year following the spread of African Swine Fever in the country.
The feeds business segment recorded a net income of P1 billion in the first nine months, down by 24 percent from a year earlier on the back of the continuous rise in raw materials costs.
The flour business segment recorded P283 million in net income during the period in review, up by 50 percent from 2020, on the back of lower byproduct contributions, in addition to higher operating and administration costs.
