DMCI sets core profit guidance at up to P13 billion for this year
INFRASTRUCTURE conglomerate DMCI Holdings, Inc. has set a core profit target of P12 billion to P13 billion for 2015, recovering from last year’s weak earnings results, its chairman said.
The higher end of that target range would be equivalent to a 26% gain from the core profit of P10.3 billion it reported last year, based on DMCI’s annual financial report.
That 2014 core income was down 3% from P10.6 billion in 2013, dragged by the softer performance of its power and construction business, as well as lower extraordinary gains.
Speaking on the sidelines of the company’s stockholders’ meeting in Mandaluyong City late on Tuesday, DMCI Holdings Chairman and President Isidro A. Consunji said the core net income target is “between P12 and 13 billion this year.”
Mr. Consunji did not elaborate, only reiterating that DMCI Holdings has earmarked P27 billion in capital expenditures for its power and real estate businesses.
Of that spending budget, DMCI Holdings said in a disclosure last Monday, P22- billion was allotted to the expansion of its 600-megawatt (MW) Calaca power plant in Batangas.
‘SYNCHRONIZED’ TO THE GRID
Through South Luzon Power Generation Corp., the company is building two 150-MW coal projects in the same area.
The first 150-MW unit, Mr. Consunji said, will be “synchronized to the grid next week,” while the other unit will follow “after 60 days.”
The company is also planning another 350- MW expansion of the plant through St. Raphael Power Generation Corp.
“We will undertake another expansion,” said Mr. Consunji on Tuesday, adding that details could not be disclosed yet.
DMCI Holdings real estate unit, DMCI Homes, is also spending P5 billion for land acquisition this year.
Mr. Consunji said the company is looking for assets in Metro Manila.
In its disclosure earlier this month following its earnings results, DMCI Holdings said better results from its real estate, mining and water businesses helped offset lower contribution of its power and construction units.
“The resilience of our engineering diversification strategy was apparent in 2014,” Mr. Consunji was quoted as saying in that earlier disclosure.
“Despite the weaker- thanexpected results of two business segments, we were able to stabilize the overall profitability of our investment portfolio,” he added.
Shares of DMCI — the country’s seventh largest conglomerate by market value — gained 0.14% or two centavos to close at P14.72 each at yesterday’s trading.