Aboitiz Power’s 2019 net profit down on power outages

Power plant outages pushed down the net income of Aboitiz Power Corp. to P17.3 billion in 2019 from P21.7 billion in 2018.

AboitizPower said in a regu­latory filing it recognized nonrecurring gains of P702 million—against P2.1 billion in losses in 2018—due to net foreign exchange gains from the reva­luation of dollar-denominated debts and derivatives, Aseagas Inc.’s value-added tax recoveries and gains on land appraisal.

It said that without one-off gains, core net income for 2019 would be P16.6 billion, down 30 percent from the P23.8 billion in 2018.

In 2019, AboitizPower endured outages of its electricity generators, higher costs of electricity that it bought to replace what it could not produce, lo­wer spot market sales, increased interest expense and higher depreciation expense.

“While market conditions had an effect on our 2019 financial result, we acknowledge that it was primarily driven by ope­rational issues,” company president Emmanuel V. Rubio said in a statement.

“Having done all the necessary measures to address these…we are positive about a much stronger operatio­nal performance and attaining our targets this year,” Rubio said.

He also expressed confidence that incoming capacities from GNPower Dinginin and full-year operations of Therma Visayas and Hedcor Bukidnon would contribute to this year’s net.

AboitizPower’s generation and retail supply business posted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of P36.2 billion in 2019, down 16 percent from a year-ago. —RONNEL W. DOMINGO