Aboitiz Power Corporation recorded a 31 percent in net income to P5.7 billion last year from P4.3 billion in 2008 on the back of a non-recurring gain of P368 million versus 2008’s non-recurring net loss of P331 million.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, AP said core net income grew by 13 percet from P4.7 billion in 2008 to P5.3 billion last year.

The non-recurring gain resulted from the one-off expenses related to the acquisition of the Tiwi-Makban geothermal plants and the Pagbilao IPPA contract, which were offset by the reversal of NPC charges for ancillary services and foreign exchange gains that resulted from the revaluation of dollar-denominated loans and placements.

For the fourth quarter of 2009, AP reported a 60 percent gain in total net income to P1.9 billion as the stronger peso resulted to a P483 million non-recurring gain due to the revaluation of dollar-denominated loans and placements on a consolidated basis.

This, coupled with a P103 million reversal of NPC charges for ancillary services and one-off transaction costs of P47 million for the Pagbilao IPP Administrator contract, resulted to total non- recurring income of P539 million for the quarter.

For the year 2009, AP’s the generation business accounted for 82 percent of bottomline, contributing P4.7 billion, up 68 percent from the previous year. Netting out one-off items, AP’s generation business contributed P4.3 billion for the year, P1.1 billion more than 2008.

This was on the back of a 167 percent increase in total attributable power sales, from 1,728 GwH to 4,619 GwH. The expansion mainly came from the improved generation of the hydro assets, which resulted from the higher rainfall during the year and the full-year operation of the 100MW Binga hydro power plant.

In addition, the Tiwi-Makban geothermal power plants, which were turned over in May 2009, and the Pagbilao coal-fired power plant, which AP took over its dispatch control on October 1, 2009, contributed a combined energy sales of 2,653 GWh, accounting for 57 percent of the total sales of the year. AP’s total attributable electricity sales increased by 6 percent from 3,142 GWh to 3,322 GWh.

Both residential and non-residential customers continued to show healthy growth rates of 7 percent and 5 percent, respectively.

The group’s customer base still expanded with the residential segment growing by 5 percent and non-residential inching up by 1 percent.

For the year 2009, the distribution group’s income contribution amounted to P1.6 billion, up 6 percent YOY as the strong gains in the third and fourth quarters offset the impact of the under recovery of cost of purchased power by AP’s distribution utilities in March 2009, which resulted from the increase in the National Power Corporation’s grid rates.