CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines – Publicly-listed firm, Cebu-based Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. (AEV) has earmarked P44 billion in capital expenditures (capex) for this year to finance its various businesses including power, food, and banking.

The bulk of the firm’s capex this year is allotted for Aboitiz Power (AP), the power generation arm of AEV with P42 billion, inclusive of P26 billion for its joint venture projects. Meanwhile, the remaining P2 billion will be spread among its food and banking businesses, said AEV President and Chief Executive Officer Erramon Aboitiz.

According to Aboitiz, the company is set to pour in approximately P60 billion each year for AEV.

“Both AEV and AP turned in record performance in 2010 and both companies are pursuing strategic plans for further growth,” Aboitiz told a press conference last Monday during the company’s annual stockholders meeting.

AEV’s disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange showed that the company ended 2010 with consolidated revenues of close to P75 billion, a 113 percent increase from 2009. The company hit a record-high consolidated net income of P21.9 billion in 2010, a 163 percent year on year.

Of the total earnings contributions from AEV, AP took the major lead turning in P19.1 billion, which accounts for 85 percent of the total earnings contributions to the company. The banking and food units ranked second and third, contributing 12 percent and 7 percent, respectively to total income contributions.

“We remain to be bullish in the country’s power business,” Aboitiz stressed.

The company’s power business closed the year with a net income of P25 billion. Its power generation business, which accounted for 93 percent of total revenues, earned P24.4 billion last year.

He said the increased capacity allowed them to sell 9,762-gigawatt hours of electricity in 2010. As of last year, AboitizPower’s attributable capacity was at 2,051 megawatts.

Aboitiz said optimizing the output of the company’s generating assets was important because it allowed the company to sell “substantial quantities” of power to the Luzon spot market when, at certain instances during 2010, conditions drove spot prices higher.

He said their two power barges in Mindanao and the commissioning of Sibulan hydro also eased the power shortages in Mindanao. We remain excited about prospects for the Philippine economy and will not stop developing generation projects to augment the country’s generation capacity,” Aboitiz said.

AP is now in various stages of development of two clean coal projects and some small hydro plants that are expected to break ground this year.

Meanwhile, AEV’s banking group posted net earnings of P2.6 billion last year. The Union Bank of the Philippines ended the year with earnings of P2.3 billion while the company’s non-listed thrift bank, City Savings, contributed P315 million. The banking group’s total deposit level stood at P198 billion.

As for its food business, Pilmico Foods closed the year with P1.5 billion in revenues.