EEI profit falls 6% in 2013

MANILA, Philippines - Yuchengco-led construction firm EEI Corp. reported a six percent drop in net income last year as a result of a slight slowdown in the local construction sector.

In a disclosure, EEI said its net earnings declined to P915.68 million from P978.81 million in 2012, thus, earnings per share fell to  P0.884 from P0.944 a year ago.

Revenue derived from local construction work declined by
nine percent to P11.33 billion last year from
P14.22 billion a year earlier.

“Aside from delays in production due to adverse weather conditions, several projects were at the completion stage at the same time, a stage of the construction cycle where revenue generation decelerates considerably,” EEI said.

Specifically, revenues from construction contracts eased 8.74 percent
to P9.39 billion from P10.29 billion while revenues from services slumped 71 percent to P888 million from P3.13 billion.
“This is because of the conclusion of the project in the Inco Goro Nickel Mining project in New Caledonia as well as that of the manpower supply contract in Singapore by the company’s foreign subsidiary, EEI Corp. (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., with Shaw Stone and Webster Asia Inc.,” EEI said.

Equity in net earnings of 49 percent-owned Al Rushaid Construction Co. Ltd jumped 23 percent to P98 million.

Consolidated costs also dropped 23 percent to P9.24 billion from P11.96 billion in 2012.

Moving forward, EEI said it would continue working on the building,
infrastructure and industrial projects that are currently in its pipeline.

As of the end-2013, the company’s backlog, or portions of existing contracts that are still in progress, for domestic projects had a net selling price of P12.48 billion.
“The total backlog of the company, including that of its local and foreign subsidiaries and joint ventures, had a value of P28.04 billion, 37 percent higher than its position in 2012,” EEI said.

“Many experts agree that the outlook on the global economy is becoming
more favorable as the Philippine domestic economy remains robust,” it added.