Alsons income up to P405 million  in 2021

MANILA, Philippines — Net earnings of Alsons Consolidated Resources Inc. (ACR), the publicly listed company of the Alcantara Group, grew by 24 percent to P405 million last year,  driven by its coal-fired power plant in Sarangani province.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday, ACR said its revenues rose by six percent  to to P10.05 billion.

ACR said its 210-megawatt (MW) Sarangani Energy Corp. baseload power plant continued to be the key revenue and income driver for the company.

The plant  currently provides power to key areas in Mindanao including Sarangani province, General Santos, Cagayan de Oro, and Iligan.

ACR, which is Mindanao’s first private-sector power generator, has a portfolio of four power facilities with an aggregate capacity of 468 MW serving over eight million people in 14 cities and 11 provinces in the country’s second largest island.

For the long-term, the company is slated to focus on renewables with the company’s first renewable energy facility—a P4.5 billion, 14.5-MW hydroelectric power plant currently under construction at the Siguil River basin in Sarangani Province.

The Siguil hydropower plant, which is targeted for completion this year, will be the first of eight hydropower facilities that ACR plans to develop.

It will supply power to the provinces of Sarangani and South Cotabato, General Santos City, and other areas in the Mindanao grid.

ACR is also working on the 22-MW Siayan (Sindangan) hydro plant in Zamboanga del Norte and the 42-MW Bago hydro plant in Negros Occidental.

The company recently received an issuer credit rating upgrade from the Philippine Rating Services Corp. (PhilRatings) to PRS Aa minus (corp.) from PRS A plus (corp).

The rating upgrade was made in relation to ACR’s issuance of up to P3 billion in commercial papers (CP).

Among the factors cited by PhilRatings for the upgrade were ACR’s “planned expansion projects which will further diversify its generation mix; the company’s ability to establish joint ventures with strong partners for particular projects and its strong profitability despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.”

The company tapped RCBC Capital Corp. as the new lead underwriter and joint-issue manager for the remaining balance of the commercial papers program approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 25, 2021.