Trans-Asia profit surges to P408M

MANILA, Philippines - Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp. said its profit surged to P408 million last year on the back of higher trading revenues from its power business.

The listed firm, the energy unit of holding firm Phinma told the stock exchange that in 2010, it recorded only P14.74 million in earnings compared with P282.81 million the previous year as revenues slipped 18 percent to P894.29 million while expenses surged to P995.35 million from P660.31 million.

The company said higher cost of power purchased resulted in negative gross margin for the energy trading business of its unit Trans-Asia Power Generation Corp.

In the nine months to September last year, Trans-Asia recorded a net income of P236 million, reversing a net loss of P98.7 million a year ago given higher trading revenue. Trans-Asia was able to buy electricity at lower prices to supply to its customers given lower wholesale electricity spot market prices.

Due to higher earnings last year, Trans-Asia will declare a cash dividend of P0.04 per share payable on March 27 to all shareholders on record as of March 1.

In a separate disclosure, Trans-Asia said the Department of Energy verified its Service Contracts (SC) 6A and 6B in Northwest Palawan, SC 14 (Tara Block) and SC 14B-1 (North Matinloc) in Northwest Palawan, SC 51 in the East Visayan Basin, SC 55 in Southwest Palawan and SC 69 in the Visayas Basin.

Each service contract has a predevelopment term of three years and a 25-year development stage, which may be extended for another 25 years.

Trans-Asia will start building a 135-megawatt (MW) clean coal plant project in Calaca in Batangas this year. The P12.6-billion coal-fired power plant is slated to start operations by 2014.

The coal power plant is under 50-50 joint venture deal with Ayala-led AC Energy Holdings Inc., which plans to build a 1,000-MW portfolio of power generating assets.

Trans-Asia engages primarily in oil exploration, but has investments in cement manufacturing, coal trading and power generation.