ACEN profit zooms to P8 billion in 9 months

MANILA, Philippines — The earnings of Ayala-led ACEN Corp. heated up from January to September on the back of a robust renewable energy (RE) output both in the Philippines and abroad.

In a regulatory filing on Thursday, the company reported a 24-percent increase in attributable net income to P8.14 billion from the same period last year’s P6.6 billion.

Despite seasonal decline for both solar and wind energy sources, ACEN’s attributable RE generation grew by 31 percent, which paved the way for a stronger net selling position in the power spot market.

Revenues, on the other hand, marginally declined to P28 billion from P28.6 billion, which was offset by lower costs and expenses during the period.

“ACEN’s renewable capacity has grown to almost seven GW (gigawatts), in line with the strong momentum behind the energy transition in the region,” company president and CEO Eric Francia said.

At present, it has a global generation portfolio of around 6.8 GW consisting of over three GW in fully operational assets, 2.3 GW in projects under construction and at least 1.4 GW worth of committed projects set to begin development within the next 12 months.

“The company continues to focus on execution, especially for projects in construction and under development,” Francia said.

From January to September, ACEN delivered a total attributable RE output of 4,127 GW hours (GWh), up by 31 percent year-on-year.

In the Philippines alone, the company’s output from RE facilities surged by 78 percent year-on-year to 1,370 GWh, the bulk of which came from power plants operationalized this year.

This followed the activation of several solar and wind farms across Zambales, Ilocos Norte, Cagayan and Pampanga.

In international markets, ACEN’s power generation sizzled by 15 percent to 2,741 GWh, largely propelled by new projects switched on in Australia and India.

“The output from ACEN’s new plants helped cushion the expected impact of resource seasonality in the third quarter and ensured continued growth and stability in our financial and operational metrics,” ACEN CFO and chief strategy officer Jonathan Back said.

Moving forward, the company plans to further strengthen its balance sheet to ensure that it is well positioned to develop its project pipeline.

As the listed energy platform of the Ayala Group, ACEN has set its sights on expanding its attributable RE capacity to 20 GW over the next six years.