Ayala nets P7.7B

Fernando Zobel de Ayala

Conglomerate Ayala Corp. chalked up a net profit of P7.7 billion in the first quarter, 10 percent higher than the level in the previous year, led by robust earnings from its real estate and power businesses.

Equity earnings from Ayala’s business units grew by 9 percent year-on-year to reach P9.2 billion, boosted by contributions of Ayala Land, which jumped 15 percent as well as AC Energy, which nearly doubled its earnings during the period.

“The sustained growth momentum in our portfolio reflects the progress we have made in our long-term diversification strategy to establish new pillars of growth and expand into new markets,” Ayala president and chief operating officer Fernando Zobel de Ayala said in a press statement on Friday.

“While we remain positive about the domestic environment and the concentration of our investments will continue to be in the Philippines, we are establishing a growing presence regionally and globally in sectors where we can bring our expertise and capital as opportunities arise,” Zobel added.

AC Energy nearly doubled its net profits in the first quarter of the year to P593 million, boosted by robust contributions of its Indonesia investment and thermal and renewable platforms.

Equity earnings from AC Energy’s investee companies also doubled to ₱822 million led by fresh contribution from Salak and Darajat in Indonesia. In addition, higher generating capacity of its thermal unit GN Power Mariveles and solar farm Montesol supported AC Energy’s profitability during the period. All these cushioned the impact of development costs incurred from its projects under construction.

As of the first quarter, AC Energy has a total attributable capacity of around 1,600 megawatts from thermal and renewable plants in operations and under construction. It has a target to ramp this up to 2,000 megawatts by 2020, with 1,000 megawatts to come renewable sources. In parallel, it has a goal of achieving a net income of P5 billion by 2020.

Despite strong topline growth of both its electronics manufacturing and vehicle retails segments, a one-off expense and startup costs of new acquisitions weighed down AC Industrials’ net income, declining 36 percent to P217 million in the first quarter.

It was earlier reported that the following units performed in the first quarter year-on-year as follows:

– Ayala Land’s net profit rose by 17 percent to P6.5 billion, driven by its residential and commercial leasing segments;
– Bank of the Philippine Islands recorded a net income of P6.2 billion in the first quarter, flat from the previous year, as lower non-interest income offset the improvement in the bank’s core banking business;
– Globe Telecom’s net profit rose by 23.7 percent to P4.7 billion as revenues were bolstered by mobile, home broadband, and corporate data segments;
– Manila Water’s net profit rose by 17 percent to P1.7 billion on improved performance of the Manila Concession and domestic business units combined with lower depreciation expense.