Mining, housing units boost DMCI income in Jan-march

Engineering conglomerate DMCI Holdings inc. on Tuesday said its income in the first quarter grew almost seven times to P4.3 billion from the previous year’s P616 million due to the significant contribution of its coal mining, power and housing units.

Core net income in the Januaryto-march period surged four times to P4.1 billion from P1 billion last year. This excludes a non-recurring loss of P414 million last year due mainly to sales cancellations for a DMCI Homes project and a non-recurring gain of P167 million owing to deferred tax re-measurement impact of Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act or CREATE Law on

Maynilad’s service concession asset and a P12-million gain on sale of land of DMCI Homes this year.

“We had a better-than-expected first quarter because of higher construction accomplishments and better coal sales. With the exception of Maynilad, all of our businesses also did very well,” DMCI Holdings Chairman and President Isidro A. Consunji said.

“Our performance in the next quarters will largely depend on how the prices of coal, nickel and electricity will hold up. We also expect some operational headwinds for SMPC [Semirara Mining and Power Corp.] given the abnormal water seepages at Molave North Block 7 and the forced plant outages.”

DMCI Homes booked a net income of P1.6 billion, a turnaround from its P197-million net loss last year, mostly on higher construction accomplishments and recognition of down payment from new accounts.

Semirara Mining and Power Corp.’s income contribution more than doubled to P1.3 billion from P623 million last year as its coal business and subsidiary Southwest Luzon Power Generation Corp. benefited from improved demand and average selling prices for coal and electricity.

DMCI Mining also had a turnaround in operations contributing

P415 million from last year’s P26 million due to the combined effect of higher production, shipment, nickel grade and average selling price.

Contributions from D.M. Consunji Inc., the construction arm, doubled to P342 million from P170 million on higher construction accomplishments and minimal expenses related to Covid-19. Quarantine restrictions continued to weaken billed volume and average effective tariff for Maynilad Water Services Inc., which led to a 24-percent decline in core net income contributions to P287 million from P379 million.

DMCI Power contributed P118 million, a 22-percent rise from the previous P97 million on the back of higher electricity sales and lower fuel costs because of the commercial operation of its 15 megawatt Masbate thermal plant. Income from parent and others recovered to P13 million from a net loss of P68 million last year on the absence of expenses related to the Covid-19 pandemic.