MANILA, Philippines--Listed firm Aboitiz Power Corp. saw a 99-percent surge in net income for the third quarter this year to P2.2 billion due to robust performance of its power generation sector and a strong peso.

This took APC’s net income for the first nine months of the year to P3.8 billion—up 19 percent from last year’s P3.2 billion.

This translated to earnings per share of P0.52, APC said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

It said a stronger peso resulted in a P97-million nonrecurring gain in the third quarter due to revaluation of dollar-denominated loans.

“This brought APC’s core net income for the third quarter to P2.1 billion, 67 percent higher year-on-year,” it added.

With a nonrecurring loss of P171 million, down from last year’s P281 million, APC said its core net income in the nine months to September grew by 15 percent to P4 billion from its year-ago level of P3.4 billion.

APC’s power generation business posted a net income of P1.9 billion in the third quarter—a 189-percent increase year-on-year.

When adjusted for nonrecurring items, the power generation group registered a 104-percent year-on-year growth in its core net income to P1.8 billion from P885 million.

For the first nine months of the year, the power generation business alone accounted for about 78 percent of APC’s bottomline, contributing close to P3 billion.

Setting aside one-off items, AP’s generation business contributed P3.1 billion for the first nine months of 2009, P798 million more than last year. As for its power distribution business, the company’s attributable electricity sales for the third quarter grew by 8 percent to 857 gWh from last year’s 796 gWh due to growth in both residential and nonresidential customers, which recorded increases of 8 and 7 percent, respectively.