First Gen nets 4% less in 7 months

First Gen Corp. registered a four percent drop in its ninemonth net income ending September, pulled down by the losses incurred by one of its gas-fired power plants and the impact of an earthquake on its geothermal plant in Leyte.

The Lopez-owned firm booked a net income of $123 million during the period, down from last year’s $128 million.

Its 420-megawatt (MW) San Gabriel Flex Plant, however, turned around in the third quarter as a result of higher electricity prices at the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM) which partially diminished the losses it incurred in the first semester.

The Unified Leyte facility of its subsidiary Energy Development Corp. (EDC) was negatively affected by the earthquake that hit Leyte last July, though offset by the better performance of EDC’s other power facilities.

In terms of recurring net earnings, First Gen’s attributable net income for the period amounted to $101 million, lower by $22 million from last year.

Broken down into earnings contribution from each business unit, the gas-fired power plants – the 1,000-MW Santa Rita, 500-MW San Lorenzo, 414-MW San Gabriel and 97MW Avion natural gas plants – pitched in $85 million, EDC with $69 million and FG Hydro with $9 million.

The slight decline was due to the one-time effect of breakfunding costs incurred as a result of a $500-million refinancing of the 1,000-MW Santa Rita Power Plant’s longterm debt last May 2017, as well as the premium paid for EDC’s partial buyback of its US dollar-denominated bond, and the geothermal company’s earthquake-related expenditures, among others.