MANILA, Philippines — First Philippine Holdings Corp. (FPHC), the listed holding company of the Lopez Group, is setting aside P51 billion in capital expenditures this year, slightly higher than last year as the company continues to spearhead the country’s decarbonization journey.
FPH president and COO Francis Giles Puno said as the company continues to navigate through a changing world, it would continue to identify significant opportunities across industries.
“In the next 29 years toward the big 2050 net zero goal, FPH will certainly play a leadership role in the country’s decarbonization pathway while building on our mission of regeneration,” Puno said during the company’s annual stockholders meeting yesterday.
FPH is among the first companies tin the Philippines to forego any investment in coal-fired power plants.
Puno said this decision enabled the company to fare better despite the pandemic.
“FPH fared well amid the pandemic, avoiding the increased prices for coal that the majority of energy players unexpectedly suffered from. On an operational level, we focused on protecting our people through our COVID-19 information and vaccination campaign, as well as shelter-in-place accommodations,” Puno said.
The company’s businesses include energy through First Gen Corp. and Energy Development Corp.; property through Rockwell Land Corp.; manufacturing through First Philippine Electric Corp. (First Philec); construction and Energy through First Balfour Inc. and industrial park through First Philippine Industrial Park (FPIP).
FPH closed 2021 with a consolidated attributable recurring net income (RNI) of P10.1 billion, up by seven percent from last year with real estate, construction, and energy solutions as main drivers of growth.
First Gen’s attributable RNI declined by 1.4 percent to P12.4 billion while First Philec posted a net income of P495 million, up 50 percent.
Net income attributable to Rockwell Land climbed by 55 percent to P1.7 million FPIP’s net income improved by 10.5 percent to P124 million.
First Balfour and ThermaPrime’s annual combined earnings for 2021 reached a record P462 million, driven by the recovery of revenues from construction projects and drilling activities.
Puno said there is still a lot of work to be done to achieve decarbonization and regeneration and search for solutions that are bespoke to the Philippine context.
“While there has been progress with the moratorium on new coal-?red plants, coal continues to dominate with a 54 percent share in the Philippines’ power generation mix. This is followed by natural gas at 19 percent. Unfortunately, the country will have to be substantially reliant on importing coal supply for the foreseeable future, and Malampaya, the country’s largest gas ?eld, is expected to run out of its reserves in the next few years,” he said.
FPH, for its part, would continue to make substantial investments in new supply of electricity.