First Gen income down 4%

First Gen Corp. reported a 4-percent decrease in recurring net income at end-September, slipping to $123 million from $128 million previously.

The company said in a statement there was a one-time effect from break funding costs incurred due to the $500-million refinancing of the 1,000-MW Santa Rita Power Plant’s long-term debt in May 2017. First Gen said attributable net income for the nine-month period was at $101 million.

Subsidiary Energy Development Corp. (EDC) also reported a partial buyback of its US dollar-denominated bonds. This is on top of its earthquake-related expenditures.

“Despite the recent calamities like the Batangas and Leyte earthquakes which negatively affected the operations of our gas plants and our largest geothermal facility, First Gen’s recurring [third-quarter 2017] net income only slightly dipped,” First Gen president and chief operating officer Francis Giles B. Puno said in a statement.

Puno said other power plants in First Gen’s portfolio, like Bacman and Burgos, were able to deliver better profits this year while San Gabriel—their newest gas plant—recovered in the third quarter.

“Our merchant natural gas-fired plants have been providing much-needed power these past few months as numerous power plants in the grid went offline due to unexpected and planned outages,” Puno said.

For the nine months to September, First Gen’s consolidated revenues from the sale of electricity went up by 9 percent year-on-year to $1.28 billion. —RONNEL W. DOMINGO