DMCI Q1 earnings up 5%

MANILA, Philippines — Diversified engineering conglomerate DMCI Holdings Inc. managed to record a five percent improvement in net income in the first quarter despite setbacks in its power generation business.

DMCI’s earnings in the first quarter stood at P4.3 billion, up five percent from P4.1 billion in the same period last year due to higher coal prices, water billed volume, and construction revenues.

Consolidated revenue during the period grew by eight percent to P20.3 billion from P18.8 billion last year.

“Our power generation business suffered some setbacks this quarter because of the unplanned outages of Sem-Calaca Power Corp. and Southwest Luzon Power Generation Corp.,” DMCI Holdings chairman and president Isidro Consunji said.

“But we believe that higher coal sales and average selling prices will more than offset the impact of these outages on our bottom line,” Consunji said.

Unit Semirara Mining and Power Corp. recorded a three percent year-on-year jump in net income for the first quarter at P4.6 billion after seeing a 24 percent increase in the average selling price of coal.

The firm’s first quarter net income contribution to DMCI Holdings rose by three percent from P2.5 billion to P2.6 billion.

Meanwhile, net income share from DMCI Homes declined 11 percent to P848 million from P950 million during the same period last year due to a slowdown in revenue recognition.

“Following the percentage of completion accounting method, DMCI Homes recognizes revenues based on the progress of its project development and once at least 15 percent of the contract price has been collected from the buyer,” DMCI Holdings said.

Net income contribution from Maynilad climbed 12 percent from P282 million to P315 million, driven primarily by higher billed volume coupled with a 2.8 percent inflationary rate adjustment on its basic charge beginning Jan. 1 this year.

D.M. Consunji Inc. posted an 85 percent surge in net income share due to the realization of variation orders from projects nearing completion. From P182 million in the prior year, its contribution to the parent rose to P336 million in the first quarter.

Earnings contribution from off-grid energy business DMCI Power, however, fell 12 percent from P87 million to P76 million attributable mainly to the lower-than-expected provisional tariff granted to its Aborlan power plant in Palawan.

The company has a pending motion for recomputation with the Energy Regulatory Commission which is expected to be resolved soon.

Shipment of higher grade nickel from old stockpile and lower depreciation costs allowed DMCI Mining to deliver strong growth in the first three months, as its net income contribution soared 41 percent year-on-year to P45 million.