Pryce Corp allots P2 B for capex

Listed Pryce Corp. has set a P2-billion expansion program to expand the capacity of its liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) terminals and refilling plants to improve supply, boost efficiency and bring down costs, its top official said.

Pryce chairman and CEO Salvador Escaño said the twoyear expansion program is targeted to be completed by the middle or third quarter of 2019.

“We are continuing our expansion, this is a two-year expansion that started second half of 2017 to middle or third quarter of 2019. We are expanding all our terminals to accommodate one shipload of LPG, just one port discharge,” he said.

Discharging of the imported LPG becomes more efficient as it will now be able to fully accommodate the normal 2500-MT LPG carriers, as opposed to sharing a shipload with other terminals of the company.

Escaño said the entire expansion covers the expansion of the capacity of the company’s terminals in Visayas and Mindanao, as well as add new refilling plants across the country.

Of the total, roughly half of the budget has already been spent which are all financed through cash generated internally, the company official said.

The expansion plan is part of the company’s growth plan of doubling volumes and revenues in the next four to five years.

“We would like to double in four to five years, in terms of revenues and in terms of volumes,” Escaño said.

“We are expanding our refilling plants. We are putting up our refilling plants to be near consumers. We want to really increase use of LPG by going to the households,” he said.

This year, Pryce has set an income target of P1.55 billion. So far, the company registered a good first half performance and is projected to hit nearly half of its profit target for the year.

For the first half, Escaño said the company likely reached a net income of P750 million and is expected to meet its profit guidance since 50 to 65 percent of its profits are recorded in the second half toward the latter part of the year.

This is because of the onset of the rainy season and the holidays in the last quarter of the year, which boost the use of LPG.

In the first quarter, Pryce posted a net income of P340.3 million, up 12.8 percent from last year’s P301.7 million.

Consolidated revenues grew 6.3 percent from P2.21 billion to P2.35 billion mainly on higher sales in the Visayas and Mindanao regions which amounted to 21,992 metric tons in sales volume.