A. Brown’s e-beam facility gets incentives from BOI

Listed firm A. Brown Co. inc. on Thursday said its unit irradiation solutions inc. (isi) has been notified by the Board of investments (BOI) of its registration as a new operator of essential services for the tanay Multipurpose irradiation Facility Project.

As a Boi-registered enterprise, ISI will be eligible for certain fiscal and non-fiscal incentives under the provisions of Republic Act 11534, or the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act, and Executive Order 226, or the Omnibus Investments Code of 1987.

ISI is developing the Tanay commercial e-beam facility, the first in the country to provide services for the sterilization of medical masks, dressings, syringes and surgical staplers and other single-use medical devices.

The facility will also be able to provide commercial irradiation services to improve the quality of agricultural and fishery products.

“This will enable local products, fruits, and seafood to be of export quality and gain wider access to international markets. The e-beam technology is used in more than 60 countries and is considered the most economical alternative among available commercial sterilization methods,” the company said.

Permitting and detailed engineering design for the Tanay facility is expected to be completed by December while construction is targeted to commence by 2022 and commercial operations to start by the second half of 2023.

Shareholders in June approved the reclassification of part of the company’s unissued capital to create 50 million preferred shares, to be offered to the public with expected proceeds of up to P1.5 billion.

PNB Capital and Investment Corp. has been designated as sole issue manager and lead underwriter for the public offering.

A. Brown said its income for the first half rose 5 percent to P225.9 million from last year’s P213.6 million last year mainly from real estate sales.

Consolidated revenues were down almost 12 percent to P289.4 million from P327.7 million last year.

It said the company incurred an 11-percent decrease in booked real estate sales to P259.9 million due to the imposition of stricter community quarantine restrictions, which affected permitting activities for the launch of new project phases.