First Gen doubles earnings to $81 M

MANILA, Philippines — Lopez-led First Gen Corp. doubled its net earnings in the first quarter, lifted by higher energy sales, foreign exchange gains and lower deferred income taxes.

In a statement First Gen said its net income amounted to $81 million (P4.2 billion), an increase of  104 percent year on year.

The company attributed the  growth to the higher electricity sales of its natural gas, geothermal and hydro platforms, as well as forex gains, and lower deferred income taxes.

In terms of core profit, First Gen reported a 28-percent rise in recurring attributable net income to $77 million.

Recurring earnings from its geothermal, wind, and solar platform surged 86 percent to $26 million (P1.4 billion) as the Unified Leyte and Tongonan geothermal plants normalized their operations and delivered higher earnings after recovering from the damage in the Leyte site caused by Typhoon Urduja in December 2017.

Meanwhile, the hydro platform also had higher contribution amounting to $10 million as it benefitted from higher sales to the wholesale electricity spot market and ancillary services.

The company’s natural gas platform delivered steady recurring earnings of $45 million (P2.4 billion).

“First Gen’s conscious choice to focus on clean, low carbon and renewable energy is paying off as the long term prospects of our platform is looking brighter. Our impressive first quarter results have set the tone for the rest of the year driven by the reliable performance of our plants across our clean energy, low carbon platform,”  First Gen president and chief operating officer Francis Giles Puno said.

“We expect natural gas and hydro to continue to deliver stable earnings, while geothermal should continue to outperform as it benefits from the full recovery of the Leyte assets and realizes the effects of its efficiency, resiliency, and cost-saving initiatives,” he said.