First Gen income surges 5-fold

MANILA, Philippines - First Gen Corp., the listed power generation company of the Lopez Group, reported a net income of $186.1 million last year, surging over five-fold from $35 million in 2011, owing to the strong performance of its natural gas, geothermal and hydro businesses.

Consolidated revenues rose by $163.3 million or 12 percent to $1.53 billion last year from $1.36 billion the prior year, the company told the Philippine Stock Exchange.

The company earned an additional $35.8 million from its purchase of BG Group’s 40-percent stake in the 1,000-megawatt Santa Rita and 500-MW San Lorenzo natural gas-fired combined cycle power plants last May.

“In total, the First Gas plants contributed $106.7 million to the company’s attributable net income in 2012,” First Gen said.

Energy Development Corp. (EDC), which also belongs to the Lopez Group, meanwhile, contributed $76.4 million in earnings in 2012, a complete turnaround from the losses in 2011, due to the impairment of its 49-MW Northern Negros geothermal plant.

EDC’s 305-MW Palinpinon-Tongonan geothermal power plants in Negros derived the full-year benefits of the price adjustments of its power supply contracts.

“These positive developments were combined with the stellar performance of the 132-MW Pantabangan-Masiway (Nueva Ecija) hydroelectric power plants as higher sales of electricity were generated from ancillary services and power sales,” First Gen also said.

First Gen owns 40 percent of the hydroelectric plants while EDC owns 60 percent. The hydro plants contributed $59.9 million to the company in 2012, compared with $25.5 million the previous year.

On the other hand, total interest expense for 2012 came in lower at $78.1 million, from $85 million in 2011, largely due to the series of refinancing exercises undertaken by First Gen in order to take advantage of the current low interest rate environment.

These allowed the company to prepay over $250 million in debt and pre-fund the remaining $57 million convertible bonds that matured in February 2013, First Gen said.

“The year 2012 was an excellent year for First Gen, primarily due to the incremental 600-MW from the purchase of BG’s stake in the First Gas plants. In 2013, we continue to pursue more opportunities for growth in each of our platforms with the intention of bringing these projects to market starting 2014,” First Gen president Francis Giles Puno said.