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Alsons to Continue Powerplant Operations, Pursue New Projects Under the New Normal

Alsons Consolidated Resources, Inc. (ACR) – the publicly-listed company of the Alcantara Group, vowed to play an active part in the country’s economic recovery amidst the recession brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. At the start of the company’s virtual annual stockholders meeting, ACR Chairman and President Tomas I. Alcantara set the tone in his opening remarks by stating “A new normal has been created and we all live under its conventions. But as I said last year, we grow as we go.” In his operational report under the theme “Sharing the Pain under the New Normal” presented during the virtual meeting, ACR Executive Vice President Tirso G. Santillan, Jr. stated, “In these difficult times for our people and the rest of world, Your Company will carry its share of the burden in order to help bring about recovery and revival.”

In his presentation Santillan reported that ACR’s power plants continue to provide power to its customers serving over eight million people in 14 cities and 11 provinces in Mindanao. The company which is Mindanao’s first private-sector power generator has portfolio of four power facilities with an aggregate capacity of 468 mega-watts (MW). “Your Company’s plants will continue to operate and supply power to our customers even as we continue to try our best to help the power distributors and consumers who have been adversely affected financially by the pandemic,” Santillan said. Last year, ACR’s 210 MW Sarangani Energy Corporation (SEC) baseload coal-fired power plant in Maasim, Sarangani began operating its full capacity when the plant’s second 105 MW section came online. SEC currently provides power to key areas in Mindanao including Sarangani Province, General Santos, Cagayan de Oro, Iligan, Dipolog, Dapitan, Pagadian, Samal, Tagum, Kidapawan, and Butuan. The US$570 million SEC plant is the single largest investment in Sarangani Province and the entire Region 12.

Santillan likewise reported that the company’s various power projects remain on-track to begin commercial operations as scheduled due to the quick recovery of Mindanao from the COVID Pandemic. Santillan characterized ACR’s pursuit of these projects as the company’s “…contribution to the economic recovery of our country by helping create new jobs and stimulate the local economies in the areas where we operate.” ACR’S projects in the pipeline are the PhP4.5 billion 14.5 MW Siguil Hydro run of river hydroelectric power plant in Maasim, Sarangani Province and the 105 MW San Ramon Power, Inc. (SRPI) baseload coal-fired power plant in Zamboanga City. Construction for the Siguil Hydro plant – ACR’s first foray into renewable energy, is currently in full-swing and the plant will be ready to start operating in 2022 as scheduled to provide power to Sarangani Province, General Santos City and key municipalities of South Cotabato. The engineering, procurement and construction contract for the SRPI plant will be signed within the third quarter of this year with construction expected to begin in early 2021. The PhP16 billion SRPI plant is slated to begin operating in 2023 as scheduled to deliver baseload power to Zamboanga City and nearby areas.

For the long-term the company is slated to focus on renewables with seven more run of river hydroelectric plants in various stages of development. The next two hydro facilities in the pipeline are the 22 MW Siayan (Sindangan) Hydro plant in Zamboanga del Norte and the 42 MW Bago Hydro plant in Negros Occidental.

ACR earlier reported consolidated full-year net income of PhP938 million in 2019 from PhP563 million in consolidated net earnings for 2018. ACR’s 2019 net earnings attributable to the parent rose to PhP148 million from PhP94 million in 2018. Full year revenues for 2019 were at PhP6.8 billion from PhP6.66 billion the previous year.

For 2020, ACR reported revenues of PhP2.21 billion for the first quarter of this year from PhP1.22 billion in the same period last year. Net earnings in the first quarter of this year rose to PhP310 million from PhP104 million in the same period in 2019. The company’s net earnings attributable to the parent also climbed considerably in the first quarter of 2020 to PhP55 million from PhP6 million in the first quarter of 2019.

The operations of the SEC plant served as the key revenue and income driver of ACR for the full year 2019 and the first quarter of 2020.

Apart from power generation, ACR is also engaged in property development. The company is in partnership with Ayala Land, Inc. in the development of Azuela Cove, a 26-hectare mixed-use township project in Davao City. The estate is operational and has opened some of its commercial facilities to the public. The first two Ayala Land Premier towers were successfully launched in 2018 and are currently under construction and on-track for turnover and occupancy within target schedules.

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