FIRST GEN Corp. reported a third-quarter net income of $54.56 million, down 17.6% from $66.18 million a year ago, despite an increase in the company’s revenues from the sale of electricity.
Revenues during the quarter hit $506.98 million, down 1.5% from $499.67 million a year ago. The Lopez-led company uses the US dollar as its functional currency when reporting its financial figures to the stock exchange.
In the nine months to September, attributable net income grew by 45.9% to $220.3 million, with the increase due to the “higher electricity sales of its clean fuel platforms, foreign exchange gains, lower interest expense, and benefits from deferred income taxes.”
The Lopez group‘s energy company reported a 21% increase in recurring net income attributable to equity holders of $217 million from the operations of its 3,492 megawatt (MW) clean and renewable portfolio.
First Gen subsidiary Energy Development Corp. (EDC) contributed recurring earnings from its geothermal, wind, and solar platform of $67 million, higher by 28.8% from $52 million a year ago.
“EDC’s Leyte and Negros geothermal plants performed better due to lower outages and higher average selling prices. Recall that a portion of EDC’s operating assets in Leyte was damaged by Typhoon Urduja in December 2017, which was fully restored in the third quarter of 2018,” First Gen said.
The company said its natural gas-fired power plants delivered increased recurring earnings for the period.
“While the two newer gas plants — the 420 MW San Gabriel and 97 MW Avion — generated higher electricity sales from their respective customers, it was Avion that provided a larger increase in earnings as the merchant plant enjoyed higher dispatch and higher selling prices in 2019,” it said.
“The two older plants — the 1,000 MW Santa Rita and 500 MW San Lorenzo — continue to perform steadily,” it added.
Meanwhile, Lopez Holdings Corp. reported a nine-month net income attributable to equity holders of the parent of P6.061 billion, up 54% from a year ago.
“The energy group under associate First Philippine Holdings Corp. (FPH) continued to perform strongly. Meanwhile, investee ABS-CBN Corp.’s advertising revenues continued to recover, boosted by political placements,” the holding firm said.
Unaudited consolidated revenues rose 9% to P99.767 billion from P91.188 billion.
FPH recorded a 35% rise in net income attributable to equity holders of the parent while recurring net income was higher by 21%, as electricity sales increased by 10%. ABS-CBN reported a 53% rise in net income as advertising revenues increased by 15%.
As of end-September, Lopez Holdings owned 51% of FPH and 56% economic interest in ABS-CBN.
On Thursday, shares in First Gen climbed by 1.44% to P24.70 each, while those of Lopez Holdings slipped by 0.24% to P4.15 each. Shares in FPH also decreased by 0.06% to P78.35 each. — Victor V. Saulon
