In a meeting of the board of directors last Friday, November 6, 2015, Alsons Consolidated Resources, Inc. (ACR) – the publicly-listed company of the Alcantara Group, reported a 19% rise in consolidated net income for the first nine months of 2015, to P685 Million from P574 Million in the same period in 2014. Despite the lower price indices used in computing tariffs for the period, net income still increased due to the higher dispatch of electricity sold by its three diesel-fired power plants namely — the 103MW Mapalad Power in Iligan City, the 100MW Western Mindanao Power in Zamboanga City, and the 55MW Southern Philippines Power in Alabel, Sarangani Province. For the nine-month period, these three plants sold 1.065 Million Megawatt hours of electricity – 17% more than the 910 Thousand Megawatt hours sold in the same period last year. All three Alsons diesel plants have significantly contributed to alleviating the power shortage in Mindanao.
Parent net income was slightly lower at P275 Million against the P307 Million registered in the same period last year. The decline came from a revaluation of the dollar-denominated debt registered at parent level coming from the recent weakening of the Philippine Peso versus the US Dollar. Without this non-recurring loss, parent income would have been P474 Million for the 9-month period- 54% higher than last year’s net income attributable to the parent.
In the same meeting, the board also approved the creation of a new subsidiary to act as the holding company that will house all of the coal-fired power plant assets and projects which ACR is currently developing. ACR is developing coal-fired power facilities to help provide a stable source of baseload power for Mindanao and ensure long-term power security for the island. These facilities are: the 105 MW San Ramon Power, Inc. (SRPI) plant in Zamboanga City and the 210 MW Sarangani Energy Corporation (SEC) plant in Maasim, Sarangani.
The first 105 MW section of the SEC plan is now in the advanced stages of testing and commissioning, and will begin commercial operations in the first quarter of 2016 with an initial capacity of 105 MW. The SEC plant is expected to be operating at its full 210 MW capacity in 2018. The SRPI power facility in Zamboanga City is expected to begin construction in 2016 and is slated to operate by 2019.
ACR is likewise entering the renewable energy sphere with the development of a 15 MW run of river hydroelectric plant along the Siguil River in Maasim, Sarangani. The Siguil plant is targeting to begin construction in 2016. ACR-affiliated power facilities are expected to have a total generating capacity of 588 MW by 2019. The said capacity will fulfill more than 25% of Mindanao’s projected peak demand for that year.
The Alcantara Group, through its other subsidiaries aside from ACR, is also engaged in aquaculture and agribusiness, property development and services. It has been an active player in the economic development of Mindanao and the rest of the Philippines for over fifty years.
