AEV profit hits P17.1B at end-SEPT.

Conglomerate Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. (AEV) grew its nine-month net profit by 44 percent year-on-year to P17.1 billion, buoyed by its power and banking businesses.

For the third quarter alone, net profit rose by 61 percent year-on-year to P6.6 billion, AEV disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

“Our efforts to pursue organic growth, invest in new assets, and strengthen operational capabilities have resulted in strong profit contributions from our power, banking and financial services, and infrastructure business units. As we ride on the tailwind that a growing economy brings, we will continue to build a sustainable, responsible, and industry-leading enterprise,” Erramon Aboitiz, AEV president and chief executive, said in a press statement.

For the January to September period, power accounted for 63 percent of total business, followed by the banking and financial services, food, infrastructure and real estate units with income contributions of 22 percent, 7 percent, 7 percent and 1 percent, respectively.

AEV incurred a non-recurring loss of P17 million during the nine-month period versus last year’s one-time loss of P623 million.   One-off items included paper foreign exchange losses net of gain on its acquisition of East Asia Utilities Corp.  Adjusting for the one-off items, AEV’s core net income amounted to P17.1 billion, 37 percent higher than the core earnings in the same period last year. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla