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Wigton Windfarm Limited, now renamed Wigton Energy Limited, continues to expand its footprint in the corporate solar market amid profit of $144 million in profit for the September second quarter.
The company recently completed the installation of a solar power system for Jamaica Inn Limited, one of Jamaica’s long-standing hotels. Wigton has also started solar installation for Carreras Limited, which sells cigarettes. These projects signal Wigton’s growing presence in the commercial renewable energy sector, outside of wind generation.
“The company continues the development of its business offering in this category and has commenced the implementation of a solar photovoltaic system for Carreras Limited,” stated the financials.
Wigton has partnered with Innovative Energy Company to supply solar power systems in Jamaica. “The company continues its pursuit for investment opportunities in the green energy sector, both independently and in collaboration with its partners,” added Wigton in its financial report.
In addition to its corporate solar projects, Wigton awaits the outcome of a government tender for the supply of renewable energy. In July, the Generation Procurement Entity, GPE, announced that Wigton and Sunterra Energy were both shortlisted to supply 50MW each under the 100MW tender.
“The decision of the GPE as to the final award is now awaited,” said Wigton.
During the September quarter, the company said discussions on repowering the first phase of its operation were ongoing, following from the Cabinet’s approval of a new 20-year generation licence for Wigton I. The energy company, which was built out in three phases over time, aims to replace the Wigton I wind turbines, which have come to the end of their useful life.
The company now holds over $9.2 billion in assets, and is capitalised at $5.4 billion.
During the quarter, Wigton generated $378 million in revenue, down from $560 million a year earlier. Despite the lower sales, Wigton reported higher pretax profit for its third-quarter and nine-month reporting periods, due to cost cutting.
Its earnings after tax fell by two-thirds, from $436 million to $144 million.
“This decline also reflects the same tax rate adjustment, which had created a favourable anomaly in the prior year,” Wigton said in its report to shareholders.
Last year, the company’s corporate tax rate was changed from 25 per cent to 33.33 per cent, the latter being the rate applied to regulated companies. Amid the change, Wigton booked over $357 million in tax credits, which the company referred to as “one-off tax income”, that served to boost its bottom line in the September 2023 quarter.
This year, however, it paid taxes of $48 million on its profit in the September quarter.
Consequently, while its bottom line earnings shrank, its pretax earnings in the current period were more than two times greater at $192 million compared to $79 million in the July-September 2023 period.
Recently, CEO Gary Barrow told the Financial Gleaner that “going forward, Wigton Energy will be focusing its efforts on leading Jamaica and the Caribbean in renewable clean energy and related energy industries. Accordingly, we are committing our resources in this area,” he said.
To aid in that effort, the energy company tapped Norman Naar as Wigton’s chief commercial officer and brought him onboard on September 16.
“This new appointment comes in the wake of the changes that were made to the leadership and organisational chart in August 2023 and specifically related to the job position of business development and innovation manager, which job title has been changed to that of chief commercial officer,” Wigton said in a market filing.
Barrow said Naar was drafted to support the company’s push for “growth through diversification”.
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