ROXAS and Company, Inc. (RCI) may revisit its plan of building a 50-megawatt solar power plant some time this year, a top official said.
“We revisit it once or twice a year. So toward the third quarter, we can look at it and see if we should consider it or if we will again (delay),” RCI President and Chief Executive Officer Fernando L. Gaspar told reporters on the sidelines of the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Makati last week.
The holding firm of the Roxas family first announced its plan to build the solar facility in April 2015, with a total investment of P1.7 billion. The plan has yet to push through, as the company focused on reorganizing and increasing efficiencies in its existing businesses.
The project will be located in Nasugbu, Batangas, where RCI has a land bank of around 2,500 hectares.
Mr. Gaspar noted that investing in a solar power plant now is starting to “come together” for the company.
“The cost of investment for solar is going down, and the price that we could sell it at is beginning to stabilize so this is coming together, it’s just a question of when. How long? It’s hard to say at this point,” Mr. Gaspar said.
“We’re doing so many start-ups… We have to focus on what we have,” he added.
RCI is currently focusing on its property and coconut processing businesses, which are expected to be the main growth drivers in the following years.
The company’s coconut processing facility stands on a 21,945-square meter land in Tupi, South Cotabato. It has a daily capacity to process 300 metric tons of raw coconut for the production of coconut milk, coconut cream, virgin coconut oil, and coconut water concentrate. All these products exported.
For the property segment, RCI is expecting more revenues from the sales of rooms in its Anya Resorts project in Tagaytay. The company is also expanding its franchise of Go Hotels, the homegrown hotel brand of the Gokongwei family. It plans to add 15 more Go Hotels in the next six to seven years, from its current network of five hotels.
The company swung to a net loss attributable to the parent of P33.6 million in the first three months of 2018, versus an attributable profit of P15.5 million in the same period a year ago. Revenues clocked in a 27% increase to P137 million.
Shares in RCI went down six centavos or 2.33% to close at P2.52 each at the stock exchange on Friday. — Arra B. Francia
