Roxas Holdings boosts 9-month earnings 80% to P455 M

MANILA, Philippines - Listed sugar miller Roxas Holdings, Inc. (RHI) registered an 80 percent increase in net income in the first nine months of its fiscal year, which ends in September, on higher ethanol sales.

According to RHI chairman Pedro Roxas, the company’s net income for the period stood at P455 million against P253 million in the same period in its previous fiscal year.

Aside from having higher income from ethanol, RHI also incurred lower interest expense and had increased equity income from affiliate Hawaiian-Philippine Co.

Through its subsidiary Roxol Bioenergy Corp., RHI is gradually increasing the production of bioethanol to increase its contribution to company revenues from the current level of about 15 percent to about 20 percent.

Roxas said the Roxol plant in La Carlota, Negros Occidental is now fully operational and has produced 25.6 million liters of ethanol in the first nine months of its fiscal year compared to only 4.7 million liters in the same period in the previous business year.

“We are looking to even better performance of our ethanol plant in the coming fiscal year,” he said.

RHI sells ethanol for the gasoline blending requirements of oil companies Shell, Seaoil, and Petron.

RHI president and CEO Renato Valencia said that while sugar production is expected to be lower this fiscal year because of operational challenges, sugar would remain as the top contributor to the company’s net income.

 “We are now making major investments in off-season repairs and improvements in our facilities to ensure better recoveries and efficiencies for the coming crop year to better serve the needs of our planter-partners,” said Valencia.

RHI’s revenues for the nine-month period rose 59 percent to P6.3 billion while its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) rose by six percent.

The company’s board also declared an interim dividend of P0.12 per share payable on Sept. 15 for shareholders on record as of August 2014.

The board also announced an annual dividend per policy of 35 percent of net income after tax.

RHI is an integrated sugar milling business exercising full management of Central Azucarera Don Pedro, Inc., in Nasugbu, Batangas, as well as Central Azucarera de la Carlota, Inc., and Roxol Bionergy Corp. in La Carlota, Negros Occidental.

It also holds a 45 percent interest in sugar miller Hawaiian-Philippine Co. in Negros Occidental.