Semirara profit surges 52% to record P6 billion

MANILA, Philippines - Semirara Mining Corp., the coal unit of the Consunji family’s investment firm DMCI Holdings Inc., said its net profit surged more than half to a record-high P6 billion last year.

The higher profit resulted from increased selling prices of coal and more electricity output, the company said in a filing to the local bourse.

Consolidated net income reached P6 billion, up nearly 52 percent from P3.95 billion a year ago.

“Consolidated earnings per share is P16.93, registering a 40 percent improvement from 2010 earnings per share of P12.10,” Semirara added.

The coal business contributed P4.1 billion to earnings while the power segment accounted for P1.9 billion of net income last year.

“On the overall, the increase was driven mainly by the higher effective average price of coal during the year and improvement in the performance of Unit 2 after rehabilitation of the plant,” Semirara said.

Semirara, through subsidiary SEM Calaca Power Corp., completed the rehabilitation of the 600-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in Calaca, Batangas last year. The power plant, which was acquired in 2009 for $361.7 million, is now operating at a capacity of 550 MW, from 340 MW.

The expansion of the power plant is in line with the group’s objective of churning out a total of 1,550 MW of power by 2013, from nothing in 2009.

The listed firm also operates a coal mine in Semirara Island in Antique. Coal output is sold to the National Power Corp. and is exported to countries like China, India, Thailand, Hong Kong and South Korea.

The company will hold its annual stockholders meeting on May 7, in which Semirara will seek to secure shareholders support to pledge 67 percent of its shares in subsidiary Southwest Luzon Power Generation Corp. to three lenders.

Southwest Luzon Power borrowed a total of P11.5 billion from BDO Unibank Inc., Bank of the Philippine Islands and China Banking Corp. to fund the construction and operation of the two 150-MW coal-fired thermal power plant in Calaca.

The new power plant will be built adjacent to the current two 300-MW coal-fired thermal power plants.